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Influence of combustion temperature on the performance of sewage sludge ash as a supplementary cementitious material

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Abstract

The potential for using sewage sludge ash (SSA) as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) has been investigated. Controlled combustion of sewage sludge collected in Croatia from two wastewater treatment plants produced SSA with different characteristics. These were used to substitute for cement in mortar samples. The chemical composition and physical properties of SSA depend on wastewater composition, the sludge treatment process and the combustion temperature. These factors influence the suitability of SSA to be used as a SCM. For three different combustion temperatures (800, 900 and 1000 °C), it was concluded that properties of fresh mortar were not affected while in the hardened state, the most favorable combustion temperature is 900 °C regarding mechanical properties. Regardless of combustion temperature, for all types of SSA used in mortars as cement replacement (up to 30%), the average decrease in both compressive and flexural strength values was less than 8% for every 10% of added SSA. The results presented indicate that using up to 20% replacement of cement by SSA produces mortars that meet the specific technical requirements analyzed in this work.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been fully supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project “7927—reuse of sewage sludge in concrete industry: from microstructure to innovative construction products”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research Department, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, Kaciceva 26, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Drazen Vouk & Domagoj Nakic

  2. Department of Materials, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb, Kaciceva 26, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nina Stirmer

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Christopher Cheeseman

Authors
  1. Drazen Vouk
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  2. Domagoj Nakic
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  3. Nina Stirmer
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  4. Christopher Cheeseman
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Correspondence to Drazen Vouk.

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Vouk, D., Nakic, D., Stirmer, N. et al. Influence of combustion temperature on the performance of sewage sludge ash as a supplementary cementitious material. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 20, 1458–1467 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-018-0707-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-018-0707-8

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