Effects of the addition of oil shale ash and coal ash on physic-chemical properties of CPJ₄₅ cement

¹ Laboratory of Applied solid state Chemistry Department of chemistry, Mohammed V University, Faculty of Science, B.P. 1014 Rabat, Morocco
² Laboratoire Asment Temara (Groupe Votorantim) Ain Atig-Temara, Rabat, Morocco

^a e-mail: Khadijanabih@yahoo.fr

Abstract

We focused our research on recycling industrial wastes, fly ash (F.A), bottom ash (B.A) and oil shale ash (S.A) in cement production. The study concerns physico-chemical characterization of these products and the influence of their addition on the mechanical proprieties of the CPJ₄₅ cement. XRF allowed us to rank the three additives used according to their contents on major oxides. Coal ashes belong to the class F, and thus possess poozzolanic properties and oil shale ash belongs to the class C and possesses hydraulic and poozolanic properties. The crystalline phases constituting each ash were analysed by XRD. We observe in bottom ash the presence of quartz and mullite. The same crystals are found in fly ash with hematite and magnetite. Oil shale ash is composed of quartz, anhydrite, gehlenite, wollastonite and periclase. The microstructures of fly ash and bottom ash were studied using SEM. The bottom ash was composed respectively of fine particles that are generally irregularly shaped, their dimensions are between 5 and 28μm and of big particles(300 μm). The EDX analysis coupled with an electronic microscope provided some information about the major elements that constitute our samples. The dehydrations of anhydrous and three days hydrated cement were examined by DSC. For hydrated cements we noticed endothermic peaks related to the dehydration of CSH, CH and decomposition of carbonates. The study of the mechanical properties of CPJ₄₅ cement by adding different proportions of fly ash, bottom ash and oil shale ash helped clarifying the percentage of ash that leaded to improve the 28 days mechanical strength. The results show that the cements studied have their maximum mechanical resistance with the addition at 7% of fly ash or 10% of oil shale ash.