Reactivity of ashes from different waste sources for chemical consolidation

One of the major challenges to the present day relates to technological and environmental efficient management of byproducts and wastes deriving from combustion of different source materials for power generation. Besides storage and disposal options, sustainable processing and valorization of such byproducts should become a key matter on which to focus and green, cost-effective alternatives to landfill disposal should be found. Nevertheless, ashes resulting from incineration of different wastes typology for energy recovery are generally composed by significant amounts of metals and other detrimental compounds (as alkali metals, chlorides and sulphates) that might prevent their widescale utilization as additions or substitutes to ordinary cementitious binders. Ashes deriving from fluidized bed combustion of industrial and municipal wastes, as well as biomass ashes still represent unexplored source materials to be used in alternative ceramics production, such as chemical consolidation. The current research is hence addressed to provide an exhaustive physico-chemical and thermal characterization of these different ashes types, with the aim to evaluate their potential reactivity in different activating media and identify the most suitable conditions for their chemical consolidation. Ecers