Theoretical Study on the Production of Environment-Friendly Recycled Cement Using Inorganic Construction Wastes as Secondary Materials in South Korea

Abstract

The cement industry endeavors to reduce CO2 emissions from cement manufacturing by utilizing industrial by-products as alternative fuels and developing secondary concrete products from construction wastes. With these efforts, the cement industry is attempting to become more eco-friendly and reduce environmental load. This study analyzed the possibility of using inorganic construction wastes to produce environmentally friendly recycled cement using the process of proportioning. To this end, the types and production trends of recyclable construction wastes and previous studies on the development of recycled cement using such construction wastes were analyzed. Based on this analysis, recyclable inorganic construction wastes were selected, and real waste was collected. The chemical composition of each inorganic construction waste was analyzed using X-ray fluorescence, and the composition of ordinary commercial cement was used as the baseline. After the collected inorganic construction wastes were mixed, they were fired using the Bogue formula. The mineral components of clinker, which was generated from the firing process, were predicted and analyzed. Waste gypsum board and ceiling materials were shown to contain large amounts of CaO, which could substitute limestone—a key component of cement. These results suggested that if the limestone content was greater than 85 wt %, mixing inorganic construction wastes in appropriate proportions could be used to develop various types of Portland cement.