Mineralogical Transformations and Microstructure After Disposal of Cementitious Advanced Coaltechnologyby-Product

By-products from two advanced coal technologies, Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) and Limestone Injection Multistage Burner (LIMB), were found to be cementitious when mixed with water and compacted. However, exposure to natural conditions in test cells resulted in losses of strength and increases in permeability over a period of years. Changes in mineralogy and microstructure with time in recovered core samples have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Up to 80 wt% of the core materials had converted to crystalline hydrate phases by the end of two years. Ettringite, gypsum and portlandite were the initial hydration products. In the LIMB materials, formation of thaumasite in microfractures, channels and voids was detected after one year, and in the FBC material after two years. Thaumasite formation was accompanied by reductions in gypsum and portlandite; it did not appear to be forming at the expense of ettringite. EDS examination of many ettringite and thaumasite crystals showed that the former always contained some Si and the latter some Al, which is evidence for ettringite-thaumasite solid solution. Thaumasite formation accompanied marked losses in strength and increases in permeability.