Production of fired construction brick from high sulfate-containing fly ash with boric acid addition

The increase of power plant capacity has led to the production of an increasing amount of fly ash that causes high environmental impact in Turkey. Some of the fly ash is utilized within the fired brick industry but high sulfate-containing fly ash creates severe problems during sintering of the fired brick. This study attempted to investigate the potential for converting high sulfate-containing fly ash into useful material for the construction industry by the addition of boric acid. The chemical and mineralogical composition of fly ash and clay were investigated. Boric acid (H3BO3) was added to fly ash—clay mixtures with up to 5 wt.%. Six different series of test samples were produced by uniaxial pressing. The samples were fired at the industrial clay-brick firing temperatures of 800, 900 and 1000 °C. The microstructures of the fired samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and some physical and mechanical properties were measured. It was concluded that the firing at conventional brick firing temperature of high sulfate fly ash without any addition of boric acid resulted in very weak strength bricks. The addition of boric acid and clay simultaneously to the high sulfate- containing fly ash brick dramatically increased the compressive strength of the samples at a firing temperature of 1000 °C by modifying the sintering behaviour of high sulfate fly ash.