Abstract

The poor engineering performance of silty waste soil (SWS) seriously restricts its utilization in new constructions that, in turn, need a large amount of building materials. Meanwhile, traditional sintering technology of clay brick production is prohibited due to its high CO2 emissions. In the present work, a rapid CO2 mineralization method is proposed to treat SWS with active lime after the pressing forming process of building block manufacturing. The optimum mix proportion and pressing forming parameters of SWS blocks are presented. Microstructure of selected SWS block samples is characterized by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT), and mineral changes are analyzed by X-rays diffraction (XRD). CO2 emissions from the SWS block production are evaluated considering the entire manufacturing process. Overall, the present study provides a proof-of-concept path that enables recycling of SWS for construction block production with low CO2 emissions.