On my previous blog post regarding “From waste to product – path to achieve environmentally friendly building materials” I presented the geopolymers as an alternative building material and mentioned the importance of recycling waste for the environment and economy.
I would like now to present our latest paper where we used an industrial alkaline wastewater for the production of geopolymers.
Geopolymers or alkali-activated materials?
Geopolymers are also referred to alkali-activated materials when there is an alkali activation of materials. These materials are an aluminosilicate source [1],[2], in our case metakaolin and biomass fly ash (already an industrial residue). This alkali activation was done using sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide but replacing partially the later by an industrial alkaline wastewater from the pulp and paper industry.
How can we do it?
Check out this paper to know how the alkaline effluent was used and the resulting properties of the geopolymers.
References
Words About Science 