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Recycling Bayer and sintering red muds in brick production: a review

综述:拜耳法和烧结法赤泥在砖块产业中的回收利用现状

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Abstract

Red mud (RM) is a solid waste generated from the extraction of alumina from bauxite. It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion tonnes of RM are produced annually worldwide. Stockpiling and landfilling of RM is toxic for the environment due to the presence of high quantities of alkali-generating minerals and metal ions. The high cost of RM treatment and limited land availability encourage the recycling and reuse of RM as construction materials. In many developing countries, brick remains the ubiquitous building material. Thus, it is reasonable to use brick as a medium to accommodate a large amount of RM. In this review, the properties of RM are analyzed and their applications in bricks are discussed. Two common types of RM, namely Bayer red mud (BRM) and sintering red mud (SRM), are introduced along with the methods to produce bricks from them through firing, cementing, and geopolymerization. High alkaline-based BRM is particularly useful as a raw material to produce fired brick and geopolymer brick, whereas SRM, which contains more dicalcium silicate (C2S) and some cementitious phases, can be favorably used to produce cementing brick. RM geopolymer brick normally has more strength (up to 51 MPa) than fired and cementing bricks, and good durability (no efflorescence) with low energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Finally, several solutions have been suggested to resolve the issue of the radioactivity of RM brick, and strict regulation of its application has been imposed in some countries, such as China.

摘要

创新点

清晰地展示了目前赤泥砖块的三大类型,并通过对不同砖块的性能进行对比讨论,提出了各类砖块存在的优缺点和未来的发展趋势。

方法

1. 分析赤泥的物理化学特性,并将其按照生产方式分为拜法耳赤泥(BRM)和烧结法赤泥(SRM)(图2);2. 将砖块按照生产方法分为烧结砖,水泥砖和地聚砖(表9);3. 分别讨论两种赤泥应用于三种砖块的生产研究现状。

结论

1. 高碱性的BRM特别适合用来生产烧结砖和地聚砖;SRM含有一些胶凝物相和较多的硅酸二钙,具有一定的水化活性,因此适合用来生产水泥砖。2. 赤泥生产的地聚砖因强度较高(可达51 MPa)、耐久性较好(无风化)、能耗低、二氧化碳排放少等优点,成为未来赤泥回收利用的一大潜力研究方向。

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Hunan Provincial Program for Innovative Talents of Excellent Postdoctoral Fellow (No. 2020RC2031), China.

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Correspondence to Tung-chai Ling  (林忠财).

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Author contributions

Yu-jia XIAO wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Michelle TIONG, Kim Hung MO, Ming-zhi GUO, and Tung-chai LING helped to organize the manuscript. Tung-chai LING, Michelle TIONG, and Yu-jia XIAO revised and edited the final version.

Conflict of interest

Yu-jia XIAO, Michelle TIONG, Kim Hung MO, Ming-zhi GUO, and Tung-chai LING declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Introducing Editorial Board Member

Prof. Tung-Chai LING has been the editorial board member of Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE A (Applied Physics & Engineering) since 2016. He is a professor at College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, China. Prior to the appointment, he was worked at the USA, UK, HK SAR of China, and Malaysia, focusing on the resource utilization of solid wastes and carbon sequestration technology in the field of construction materials. His works have been published in 129 SCI journal papers (100 as first/corresponding author), garnering over 4400 citations and an h-index of 41. He presided over 18 competitive national and provincial research projects. He has been elected as an associate fellow of the ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology (AAET), and fellow of the Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI), China; serving as the associate editor of the ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and the editorial board member of several international journals. He has been listed as one of the top 2% of global scientists (Career-long impact), and was awarded the “Robert L’Hermite Medal” by International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM) in 2020. The medal is awarded to one young outstanding scientist globally every year, and he is the first scholar from a Chinese university to receive this prestigious award since the inception of the medal in 1967.

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Xiao, Yj., Tiong, M., Mo, K.H. et al. Recycling Bayer and sintering red muds in brick production: a review. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. A 23, 335–357 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A2100476

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A2100476

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