Pulverized Calcined Clay and Carbide Waste as Alternative Binder in Concrete and Mortar Applications for Sustainable Construction

Portland cement (PC) based concrete is the world’s most consumed man-made material and this consequently puts lots of demand on cement as a binder. The CO2 gas emission during cement clinker production has placed this important material into non-environmental-friendly classification with quest for greener alternatives being on the rise. A recent study showed combination of Pulverized Calcined Clay (PCC) and Calcium Carbide Waste (CCW) as possible alternative for total PC replacement with resulting appreciable mortar strength but delayed setting times and lower strength than PC mortars. This paper reports on effects of PCC-CCW as alternative binder on strength properties of mortars. The mortar mixes had superplasticizers added to reduce water/binder ratio while the CCW was treated to reduce impurities with a view to improving the strength development and a bid to mitigate the observed setbacks of earlier study. The pozzolanic activity indices of the PCC was determined via X-Ray Fluorescence(XRF) and strength determination (strength activity index). The PCC was combined with Purified CCW to determine the binder’s strengths at varying PCC:CCW replacements to determine the prescribed mix combination for optimum strength. Improved optimised mortar strength of 13.11MPa was achieved compared to 11.89MPa in the previous stud