A new civil engineering material: normal temperature modified phosphogypsum embedded filler

Phosphogypsum (PG) is a by-product from the industry of phosphate fertilizer industry. Approximately 5 tonnes of PG are generated for per ton of phosphoric acid production. The accumulation of PG occupies huge amounts of land resources and results in serious environmental risks. In this study, a new civil engineering building material product, normal temperature-modified PG-embedded filler, was successfully prepared from original PG, supplemented by fly ash, desulfurized ash, quicklime and silica fume. The basic physical properties and microscopic hydration process of the product were systematically studied. To further ensure its environmental safety, the leaching performance of the product was also analyzed. The final research results showed that, the heavy metals in PG, such as Pb, Cd, Hg, As and Cr in PG, were undetected, and Cu, Zn, and Ni have no obvious pollution characteristics. However, the lixivium contents of P and Ba are 2372 mg/kg and 733.6 mg/kg, which can be considered as the particular pollutants. The best ratio of the embedded filler was: 65% original phosphogypsum, 20% Fly-ash, 6% desulfurized ash, 6% quicklime, 3% silica fume and right amount of water. The basic physical properties of the PG-embedded filler prepared met the Chinese technical specification: gypsum filler for cast-in-situ concrete hollow structure (JC/T 2472-2018). In addition, the test results of the leaching solution showed that all the heavy metals met the standard requirements. In a word, the performance of normal temperature-modified PG-embedded filler is satisfied and its production cost in this research is by far lesser than that of the same volume of reinforced concrete which has excellent application foreground.