Resource utilization of drinking water treatment aluminum sludge in green cementing materials: Hydration characteristics and hydration kinetics

As a byproduct of water treatment, drinking water treatment aluminum sludge (DWTAS) has challenges related to imperfect treatment and disposal, which has caused potential harm to human health and the environment. In this paper, heat treatment DWTAS as a supplement cementitious material was used to prepare a green cementing material. The results show that the 800°C is considered as the optimum heat treatment temperature for DWTAS. DWTAS-800°C is fully activated after thermal decomposition to form incompletely crystallized highly active γ-Al₂O₃ and active SiO₂. The addition of DWTAS promoted the formation of ettringite and C-(A)-S-H gel, which could make up for the low early compressive strength of cementing materials to a certain extent. When cured for 90 days, the compressive strength of the mortar with 30% DWTAS-800°C reached 44.86 MPa. The dynamic process was well simulated by Krstulović-Dabić hydration kinetics model. This study provided a methodology for the fabrication of environmentally friendly and cost-effective compound cementitious materials and proposed a "waste-to-resource" strategy for the sustainable management of typical solid wastes.