Tundish Deskulling Waste as a Source of MgO for Producing Magnesium Phosphate Cement-Based Mortars: Advancing Sustainable Construction Materials

Anna Alfocea-Roig, David Vera-Rivera, Sergio Huete-Hernández, Jessica Giro-Paloma () and Joan Formosa Mitjans ()
Additional contact information
Anna Alfocea-Roig: Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
David Vera-Rivera: Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Sergio Huete-Hernández: Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Jessica Giro-Paloma: Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Joan Formosa Mitjans: Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

Resources, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Currently, the cement industry stands as one of the sectors with the most significant environmental impact, primarily due to its substantial greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. To mitigate this impact, a roadmap has been followed in recent years, outlining a set of objectives aimed at diminishing the environmental footprint of the construction industry. This research focuses on the development of mortars with different water/cement ratios employing an alternative cement, specifically magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) formulated with secondary sources. The goal of this research relays in developing mortars based on MPC by using waste from the metallurgical industry, named tundish deskulling waste (TUN), as an MgO source. The results revealed the optimal water/cement (W/C) ratio for MPC-TUN mortars production through the assessment of various characterization techniques, which was 0.55. This ratio resulted in the highest compressive strength after 28 days of curing and the formation of a stable K-struvite matrix. Furthermore, it demonstrated the effectiveness of aluminum sulphate in preventing efflorescence caused by carbonates. The development of alternative masonry mortars for application in building materials represents a significant stride towards advancing the principles of a circular economy, in alignment with the objectives laid out in the 2030 roadmap.

Keywords: circular economy; refractory waste; magnesium phosphate cement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/14/7/107/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/14/7/107/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:14:y:2025:i:7:p:107-:d:1690586

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().