Lourdes Soriano

Polytechnic University of Valencia | UPV · Institute of Concrete Science and Technology (ICITECH)

Cogeneration with energy cane, a highly productive variety compared to conventional sugarcane, significantly increases ash generation, presenting waste management challenges for the sugar and ethanol industries. This study evaluates the potential of energy cane ash as a sustainable alternative material for partial cement replacement in construction...

LC3 (limestone calcined clay cement) is poised to become the construction industry’s future as a so-called low-carbon-footprint cement. Research into this subject has determined the minimum kaolinite content in calcined clays to guarantee good mechanical performance. This study examines the use of clay from the Valencian Community (Spain), which ha...

A solution to reduce the consumption of raw materials and the generation of greenhouse gases is the partial replacement of clinker (the main constituent of cement) with supplementary cementitious materials. This study aimed to compare the reactivity of ten supplementary cementi-tious materials-synthetic/commercial ones and those from industrial and...

Agricultural waste availability implies the possibility of recovering energy as biomass. The collateral effect is the production of ashes that, in some cases, have the potential to be reused in the manufacture of cement, mortar, and concrete. This article presents the study of the auto-combustion (unlike all previous studies) of corn (maize) straw...

Rice husk ash (RHA) is agricultural waste with high silica content that has exhibited proven technical feasibility as a pozzolanic material since the 1970s. Notwithstanding, its use in mortars and concrete is limited by the standards currently utilized in some countries where RHA production is high and the aforementioned pozzolanic material is not...

Rice husk ash (RHA) is agricultural waste with high silica content that has had proven technical feasibility as a pozzolanic material since the 1970s. Notwithstanding, its use in mortars and concrete is limited by the standards currently utilized in some countries where RHA production is high and the aforementioned pozzolanic material is not standa...

Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) have been used in the construction industry to mainly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Portland cement. Of SCMs, the petrochemical industry waste known as fluid catalytic cracking catalyst residue (FCC) is recognized for its high reactivity. Nevertheless, the binders produced using SCMs...

Concrete and ceramic products are among the most widely used materials in the construction sector. The production of ceramic materials has significantly grown in recent years. Concrete is one of the most widely used materials worldwide and most of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are attributed to Portland cement (PC) production. This review anal...

The aims of this work were to evaluate the reactivity of sugarcane straw ashes (SCSA) burned under controlled conditions and to analyze their reactivity in blended cement and hydrated lime pastes by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and calorimetry. Four different ashes were produced, and burned at 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C and 900 °C (SCSA600, SCSA700,...

A large amount of ceramic waste of various types (from bricks, roof tiles, wall tiles, sanitary ceramics…) is generated both during its manufacturing processes and during the construction and demolition of buildings. Due to its long biodegradation period, depositing inert ceramic waste in landfills causes significant visual and environmental impact...

The production of Portland cement (PC) has the highest environmental impact among the different components of concrete. Also, although ceramic products are consumed worldwide and constitute a significant fraction of construction and demolition waste, significant amounts of ceramic waste (BCW) are simply landfilled or used as road sub-bases. This st...

The use of high percentages of substitution of Portland cement by pozzolans can provoke the total consumption of portlandite. The present research proposes the study of ternary systems of Portland cement (PC), fly ash (FA), and hydrated lime (CH). After 180 days of curing, the mortar with 50% substitution of PC by FA obtained 65.9 MPa versus the mo...

The use of geopolymers has revolutionized research in the field of construction. Although their carbon footprint is often lower than that of traditional mortars with Portland cement, activators such as sodium silicate have a high environmental impact in the manufacturing of materials. Employing alternative alkali sources to produce geopolymers is n...

The aim of this study was to use the electrical impedance spectroscopy technique (IS) to carry out a systematic study on the mechanism of metakaolin geopolymerization for up to 7 curing days. The study was developed on two batches of metakaolin (MK), and their reaction processes were compared. Interpretative fundamental elements were developed base...

The possibility of using pozzolanic materials as a partial substitute for Portland cement (PC) to develop mortars and concretes promotes environmental and economic benefits. The present paper includes an in-depth investigation into the characterization of natural pozzolans from Guatemala for the valorization of these materials. An exhaustive physic...

Large amounts of waste are derived not only from construction processes, but also the demolition of existing buildings. Such waste occupies large volumes in landfills, which makes its final disposal difficult and expensive. Reusing this waste type is generally limited to being employed as filler material or recycled aggregate in concrete, which lim...

This work studies the possibility of using geopolymer materials to enhance the mechanical and durability properties of hydrated lime–pozzolan mixtures, which gave rise to the so-called “hybrid systems”. Two different waste types were used as pozzolan in the lime–pozzolan system: rice husk ash (RHA) and spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC). The geop...

This study evaluated the compressive strength performance and microstructure of binary blast furnace slag-sewage sludge ash (BFS-SSA) alkali-activated mortars, in which rice husk ash (RHA) was dissolved in NaOH solution to replace commercial sodium silicate. The dissolution of RHA, performed in a thermal bottle with NaOH solution, enhanced the comp...

Los cementos de activación alcalina (CAA) requieren de un componente alcalino para la activación del precursor. La fabricación del activador alcalino (AA) supone un consumo energético y de materias primas muy importante, de modo que la huella de carbono de los CAA está fundamentalmente influenciada por ese factor. Una alternativa es el uso de otras...

Innovative solutions for reducing environmental problems associated with alkali-activated concrete are fundamental to make its use widespread. This study aims to present an overview of the production, characterization, application, and environmental aspects of alkali-activated mortars and concretes produced using nonconventional alkaline activating...

In the last decade, herbaceous and agricultural biomass have been used as an alternative energy source. As consequence, large amounts of residual ashes containing potassium (potassium-rich ashes) have been generated. Olive biomass ash (OBA) and almond shell ash (ABA) have been successfully used as alkali source in the alkaline activation of ground...

This paper aimed to evaluate the long-term compressive strength development of the sewage sludge ash/metakaolin (SSA/MK)-based geopolymer. SSA/MK-based geopolymeric mortars and pastes were produced at 25ºC with different SSA contents (0 - 30 wt.%). Compressive strength tests were run within the 3-720 curing days range. A physicochemical characteris...

The use of almond-shell biomass ash (ABA) as an alternative component to the commercial reagents used in the activation of blast furnace slag (BFS) systems is investigated. The presence in its chemical composition of a high content of K2O indicates that it can alkalinize the medium. 100% waste-based mixtures ABA/BFS were studied by micro- and macro...

Spent fluorescent lamps glass (SFLG) waste, manually and mechanically processed in a lamps waste treatment plant, was used to partially replace up to 50 wt% Portland cement (PC). Both waste types exhibited similar pozzolanic activity. The mortars containing up to 35 wt% SFLG met the specifications for other pozzolanic materials (e.g. fly ash) and,...

This paper evaluated the pozzolanic activity of ceramic sanitary ware (CSW) waste when blended with Portland cement (PC). CSW waste units were broken, crushed and milled to reduce their particle size. These particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), laser granulometry, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction test...

Pervious concrete is a construction material widely used in pervious pavements. Pozzolanic materials replacing partially Portland cement can improve mechanical and hydraulic issues associated with the use of pervious concrete. This paper reports the use of wastes from the sugar cane industry (sugar cane bagasse ash and sugar cane straw ash) and the...

Cellular concrete is an alternative to conventional concrete as a low-density and high-insulating building material. The eco-cellular concretes (ECCs) based on geopolymer technology have been recently introduced by the scientific community. A form of ECC was studied, in which the fluid catalytic cracking residue and the blast furnace slag were empl...

Resource recovery from waste is one of the most important ways to implement the so-called circular economy, and the use of alkali activated materials can become an alternative for traditional PC-based materials. These types of materials are based on waste resources involving a lower carbon footprint and present similar or high properties and good d...

Raw sewage sludge was characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and TGA techniques and incinerated in temperature range 650–950°C for 2 h. The effect of incineration temperature on the microstructure and pozzolanic activity of the resultant ash was investigated by techniques mentioned above as well as Chapelle test. It was concluded that incineration of sew...

Use of lime as construction material is limited mainly by low initial strength. These properties can be improved by adding pozzolanic materials, but the evolution of the reaction usually needs older ages than 7 days. Alkali-activated materials, or geopolymers, are good-performance materials that can be produced with residual waste. The combination...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of potassium extraction on the pozzolanicity of sugar cane bagasse ash (SCBA), with the aim of producing reactive ash for use in cementitious composites. The sugar cane bagasse ashes were produced at 600 °C for 60 min, with a heating rate of 4 °C/min. The ashes were then ground and washed for...

Rice husk ash is one of the most widely studied biomass ashes used in pozzolanic addition. Given its lower silica content, rice straw ash (RSA) has been explored less often, despite the fact that, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rice straw (RS) production is estimated at 600 million tons/year. In this work,...

Spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is produced worldwide and has homogeneous chemical, mineralogical, and physical properties, regardless of the petrol refinery source. This good performance facilitates its reuse, especially for making different types of cement or concrete. Spent FCC shows excellent reactivity in pozzolanic behavior terms because...

Worldwide cement production is around 4.2 billion tons, and the fabrication of one ton of ordinary Portland cement emits around 900 kg of CO2. Blast furnace slag (BFS) is a byproduct used to produce alkali-activated materials (AAM). BFS production was estimated at about 350 million tons in 2018, and the BFS reuse rate in construction materials of d...

Soil stabilization using cementing materials is a well-known procedure for earth-based building blocks preparation. For the selected binding materials, innovation usually focuses on low carbon systems, many of which are based on alkaline activation. In the present paper, blast furnace slag (BFS) is used as a mineral precursor, and the innovative al...

Reusing ceramic waste as a pozzolanic admixture may offer environmental benefits as it allows the reduction in the consumption of natural resources and energy, and the reduction of CO2 emissions associated with Portland cement (PC) production, while valorising waste materials with a long biodegradation period. This paper assessed the pozzolanic act...

This paper focuses on investigating greener alternatives of cellular concrete technology to fulfil current searches for a shift to circular economy. A novel one-part eco-cellular concrete (ECC-OP) was developed and studied. The one-part alkali activated materials (AAM-OP) and new alkali-activated cellular concrete (AACC) technologies were combined...

The use of almond-shell biomass ash (ABA) as an alkali source in one-part blast furnace slag (BFS) mortars activation was investigated for the first time. The chemical composition of ABA revealed high alkalinity ash to be composed mainly of K2O and CaO. The one-part 100% waste-based mortars and pastes were studied by mechanical and thermogravimetri...

This investigation presents an important contribution to the understanding of the “zero discharge in the aluminium cycle” goal. The salt slag recycled by-product was reused as alternative aerating agent in the manufacture of cellular concretes: fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (FCC) – based geopolymer (GCC) and blast furnace (BFS) – based alkali-a...

Alkali‐activated cements are widely studied as alternative and sustainable binder in soil stabilization. In this research work, a mold was designed and constructed, which allowed small cubic specimens to be made (40 × 40 × 40 mm³). With the newly designed mold, cubic samples of soil stabilized with portland cement (OPC) and alternative AAC (based o...

Alkali-activated cements (AACs) technology is being widely investigated as a replacement for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) for environmental benefits. Blast furnace slag (BFS) is one of the most well known precursors used in AACs, having comparable properties to those of traditional OPC-based materials. AACs require alkali solutions, which are com...

In the context of world concern with the environment, this study aims to characterize an auto-combustion produced bamboo leaf ash (BLA) by its pozzolanic behaviour, reactivity and its influence in the total porosity, pore size distribution, tortuosity and mechanical behaviour of cementitious matrices. The chemical and physical characterization of t...

This paper explored the effect of sewage sludge ash (SSA) on the mechanical and microstructural properties of geopolymers based on metakaolin (MK) involving two different SiO2/Na2O molar ratios (0.8 and 1.6), two temperature curing conditions (25 °C and 65 °C) and various ages of curing (1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 90 or 180 days). The geopolymers were charac...

Arundo donax is a plant native to Asia and is considered an invader species in the Mediterranean region and many tropical zones in the world. These invader plants can be collected to produce a biomass, which can be converted to ash by combustion. The scope of the study is to assess the use of these ashes (Arundo donax straw ash [ADSA]) as supplemen...

This study evaluates the effects of microwave oven calcining conditions on the pozzolanicity of sugar cane bagasse ashes (SCBA) generated by the electric power cogeneration industry. The calcining temperatures varied between 600 °C and 800 °C, and the permanence times were 60 min in an electric oven and 30, 45 and 60 min in a microwave oven. To eva...

Changes caused in the porous microstructure of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mortars were studied using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and equivalent circuit (EqC). Two successive processes, at 20 °C and 50 °C, consisting of several drying-rewetting cycles, were applied to the mortars. After each cycle, the electrical impedance and the am...

Many agrowastes are being used for energy production by combustion in power plants. This process generates huge amounts of ash, which has a potential pozzolanic activity for blending with Portland cement or hydrated lime. In this paper, the ash obtained from elephant grass ( Pennisetum purpureum Schum var. purple ) leaves (EGLs) was studied, includ...

Chemistry is an essential science for understanding and developing construction materials. Specifically, the application of the green chemistry concept to the cement sector might allow the fabrication of new environmentally...

The properties of a binder developed by the alkali-activation of a single waste material can improve when it is blended with different industrial by-products. This research aimed to investigate the influence of blast furnace slag (BFS) and fly ash (FA) (0–50 wt %) on the microstructure and compressive strength of alkali-activated ceramic sanitarywa...

Alkali-activated binders (AABs) are a material obtained from the combination of a solid precursor and an alkaline activating solution. In this study, one solid precursor used was blast-furnace slag (BFS) and the other was an agro waste: sugar cane straw ash (SCSA). Sodium hydroxide was used for preparing activating solutions. In order to reach the...

Alkali silicates, expensive and highly pollutant chemical reagents, are required to produce the alkaline activator for high-performance alkali-activated materials. This study presents a new silica source for producing the alkaline activator, sugar cane straw ash (SCSA). An activating suspension was prepared with SCSA and NaOH by means of a thermal...

Portland cement (OPC) production is one of the most contaminating greenhouse gas producing activities. In order to reduce OPC consumption, several alternatives are being assessed, and the use of pozzolanic material is one of them. This paper presents study on the reactivity of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), a residue from sugarcane industry, as a po...

The use of binders as an alternative to Portland cement has gained importance in recent years. Among them, geopolymeric binders, developed by the reaction between an aluminosilicate precursor and a high alkalinity solution, have become one of the most promising alternatives. The activating solution generally comprises waterglass and sodium hydroxid...

Production of Portland cement requires a large volume of natural raw materials and releases huge amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. Lower environmental impact alternatives focus on alkali-activated cements. In this paper, fluid catalytic cracking residue (FCC) was used to partially replace (0 wt %–50 wt %) ceramic sanitaryware (CSW) in alkali-activa...

Los hormigones ligeros representan, hoy en día, una alternativa interesante en la industria de la construcción. Caracterizados por su baja densidad y moderada resistencia mecánica, son excelentes aislantes térmicos y acústicos. Dentro de este tipo de materiales, se clasifica el hormigón celular. Se trata de una pasta o mortero de cemento Portland c...

The ceramic sanitary-ware market generates large amounts of waste, both during the production process and due to construction and demolition practices. In this paper, the effect of different amounts and calcium sources (calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2, calcium aluminate cement CAC, Portland cement PC) on the alkaline activation of ceramic sanitary-ware w...

The using of wastes in the design of new binders for construction is the key for the success of new developments regarding environmental, technical, and economic issues. Biomass ashes usually contain reactive compounds for creating binding matrices by means of alkali activation and by blending with hydrated lime. These ashes are available in many c...

The degradation of synthetic fibers derived from postconsumer wastes and used in fiber-reinforced cement mortars was studied. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene postconsumer bottles were immersed in an alkaline medium of a 1-M solution of sodium hydroxide and portland cement paste. Then, the fibers' surfaces were analyze...

Biomass waste from rice straw has many management problems, including field firing causing severe air pollution and natural organic decomposition resulting in methane emission. The conversion of this waste to ashes may offer the possibility of reusing them in cementing systems. For the first time ashes from different parts of the rice plant (Oryza...

This study presents a new cellular concrete design focused on the energy eco-efficiency and the sustainability concept: geopolymer eco-cellular concrete (GECC). Geopolymer systems made from alkali-activated fluid cracking catalyst residue (FCC) aerated by recycled aluminium foil powders (R) were designed. Commercial aluminium powder (A) was also us...

In the present work, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and sewage sludge ash (SSA) blends were assessed for the production of alkali-activated pastes and mortars. Percentages of SSA to substitute GGBS ranged from 0 to 30 wt% and sodium concentrations of 6–10 mol kg⁻¹ were used for the activating solutions. Pastes and mortars were cured at...

Alkali-activated materials (AAM) comprise one of the solutions to diminish the use of Portland cement in building construction and, consequently, a reduction in the environmental problems related to CO2 emissions and energy consumption may be achieved. These kinds of binders are obtained when a mineral precursor (calcium silicate or aluminosilicate...

The present work investigated alkali-activated mortars with high ceramic waste contents. Tile ceramic waste (TCW) was used as both a recycled aggregate (TCWA) and a precursor (TCWP) to obtain a binding matrix by the alkali-activation process. Mortars with natural siliceous (quartz) and calcareous (limestone) aggregates, and with other ceramic waste...