Title: Desilication of fly ash and development of lightweight construction blocks from alkaline activated desilicated fly ash

Authors: Thabo Falayi; Felix Ndubisi Okonta; Freeman Ntuli

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, South Africa ' Department of Civil Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, South Africa ' Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract: Massive reserves of power plant fly ash dumps in South Africa have necessitated the development of different processes for effective remediation to achieve zero waste generation by secondary processes. Silica was leached from fly ash (FA) at the optimum conditions of a leaching time of 6 h, 3 M KOH, 500 rpm agitation speed, 25 liquid to solid ratio and a leaching temperature of 100°C. A lightweight construction block (LWCB) was developed from desilicated fly ash (DFA) and KOH. It was found that the optimum synthesis conditions were 10 M KOH, +0.075-0.300 mm DFA and a curing temperature of 40°C for 12 h, 80°C for 12 h and 100°C for 24 h. The development of strength was through the formation of Kalsilite. The LWCB met the minimum requirements for ASTM C34-13, C129-14a and South African standard (SANS227: 2007).

Keywords: desilication; lightweight construction block; LWCB; Kalsilite; desilicated fly ash; DFA; durability; alkaline activation; fly ash; geopolymer; porosity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2017.087152

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2017 Vol.20 No.3, pp.233 - 253

Received: 17 Aug 2016
Accepted: 16 Mar 2017

Published online: 06 Oct 2017 *

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