Properties of Foamed Lightweight High-Performance Phosphogypsum-Based Ternary System Binder

Abstract

The potential of phosphogypsum (PG) as secondary raw material in construction industry is high if compared to other raw materials from the point of view of availability, total energy consumption, and CO2 emissions created during material processing. This work investigates a green hydraulic ternary system binder based on waste phosphogypsum (PG) for the development of sustainable high-performance construction materials. Moreover, a simple, reproducible, and low-cost manufacture is followed by reaching PG utilization up to 50 wt.% of the binder. Commercial gypsum plaster was used for comparison. High-performance binder was obtained and on a basis of it foamed lightweight material was developed. Low water-binder ratio mixture compositions were prepared. Binder paste, mortar, and foamed binder were used for sample preparation. Chemical, mineralogical composition and performance of the binder were evaluated. Results indicate that the used waste may be successfully employed to produce high-performance binder pastes and even mortars with a compression strength up to 90 MPa. With the use of foaming agent, lightweight (370–700 kg/m3) foam concrete was produced with a thermal conductivity from 0.086 to 0.153 W/mK. Water tightness (softening coefficient) of such foamed material was 0.5–0.64. Proposed approach represents a viable solution to reduce the environmental footprint associated with waste disposal.