Glass-derived sodium silicate used as an activator for cement-free binders to rival commercial sodium silicate
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Despite the clear and current dangers of climate change, the production of cement, which has an embodied carbon of approximately 860kg CO2e per 1000kg, continues to grow reaching over 4 billion tonnes annually. Alkali activated materials have emerged as alternatives to cement based binders and have been reported to reduce the carbon emissions by up to 80%compared with cement based binders. However, alkali activated materials require the use of strong alkali activators such as sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. These chemicals are Sodium silicate is a commodity product and is readily used in a variety of industries making it both expensive and in significant demand. This study seeks to create a glass-derived sodium silicate sourcedfrom waste glass that can rival the commercially available products on the market. The glass-derived sodium silicate could not only reduce the cost of alkali activated materials but would also make use of waste glass avoiding over 925,000 tonnes/year of landfilled glass and could save around 1.23 million tonnes of primary raw materials. The glass-derived sodium silicate developed in this work has been utilised as an activator for alkali activated materials. Mortars made with the glass-derived sodium silicate and commercially available sodium silicate activators have shown comparable compressive strengths. In addition, the glass derived sodium silicate has been purified by filtration resulting in a composition similar to products currently on the market.
Authors: McCloskey, Daniel W., Soutsos, Marios, Kwasny, Jacek, Swadzba-Kwasny, Gosia; id_orcid 0000-0003-4041-055X, Goodrich, Peter
Language: English
Subfield: Civil and Structural Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7066128589
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