Concrete @ your Fingertips

Municipal solid waste incinerator ash (MSWIA) cements

Municipal solid waste incinerator ash (MSWIA) can be used in one of two ways to make a novel cement.

As mentioned in the fingertip on alkali-activated cements, it can be used as the major component of an alkali-activated pozzolanic/geopolymeric cement or it can be used as a major raw material within a novel process to produce a traditional Portland cement. It is this latter usage, so far only in Japan within so called ´ecocements´, which is described here.

These types of ecocement are manufactured in Japan and are traditional Portland cements in their mineralogical composition but processed from raw materials where 50% has been replaced by MSWIA, and/or sewage sludge, and where waste oils, non-recyclable plastics and refuse-derived fuels have replaced fossil-fuels.

With one exception, these ecocements are virtually indistinguishable from Portland cement CEMI and consequently have the same properties, performance and applications.

Further information is available in the MPa Cement Fact Sheet 12

Acknowledgement: The Concretre Society