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Pavements 2025

Innovative Sustainable Methods, Materials, and Recycling

POSTER RECEPTION (View list of posters here)

Producing Sustainable Construction Materials through Carbon Mineralization

Tuesday, June 10, 2025
4:45 PM – 6:00 PM MT
Abstract: One major issue facing the concrete industry is carbon emissions from the cement manufacturing process. To lower these emissions, cement substitutes such as pozzolanic materials can be used to replace cement. This research aims to use carbonated industrial residues, including steel slags and coal combustion materials, to create valuable products suitable for cement replacement. The carbonation process, referred to as CO2 mineralization, is a promising approach to sequester CO2. The study involved the characterization of residues using X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and particle size screening before and after CO2 mineralization in a ball mill to assess the chemical and morphological changes to the residues due to the beneficiation process. The CO2 mineralization process is expected to release additional pozzolanic materials, including fine silica, which, together with formed calcium carbonate, could produce mortar mixtures with improved compressive strength over conventional non-carbonated residues. The experimental investigation assessed the impact of incorporating mineralized materials into cement mortar mixtures at a replacement rate of 20% and 50%, according to ASTM C311 and ASTM C989, respectively. The strength activity index test compared to pre-mineralized samples was performed, and the compressive strength development of these mortar mixtures was evaluated after 7 and 28 days. The initial results from this study indicate no performance deterioration due to the carbonation process.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:
  • Determine industrial residues that present the best opportunity for CO2 sequestration.
  • Evaluate the strength activity of cement mortar by investigating the compressive strength of pre and post-mineralized materials.
  • Demonstrate the influence of pozzolanic interaction when industrial residues are used as cement replacements.