Potential of Using Industrial Wastes for Production of Geopolymer Binder as Green Construction Materials Areej T. Almalkawi a,⇑ , Anagi Balchandra b , Parviz Soroushian b a Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, 3546 Engineering Building, E. Lansing, MI, USA b Metna Corporation, 1926 Turner Street, Lansing, MI, USA highlights  The focus of this investigation was on development of a new sustainable class of hydraulic binder that relies upon the robust nature of alkali aluminosilicate binder chemistry to make value-added and large-volume use of industrial wastes of rice husk ash, municipal waste solid ash (MSW) and coal fly ash as primary raw materials.  In an effort to produce a hydraulic binder that requires only the addition of water (in lieu of alkaline solutions in traditional geopolymerization), the blend of raw materials was subjected to mechanochemical processing.  The binder chemistry used here yields hydration products with desirable capabilities for stabilization of heavy metals. article info Article history: Received 1 May 2018 Received in revised form 15 March 2019 Accepted 5 June 2019 Available online 24 June 2019 Keywords: Rice husk Alkali activated materials Geopolymer binder Hazardous industrial waste Leaching test Green construction materials abstract Rice husk ash, Municipal Solid Incineration Ash and coal fly ash was served as aluminosilicate precursor in synthesis of one-part alkali activated geopolymer binder. These by-products industrial wastes were subjected to physio-chemical processing of materials (mechanochemical synthesis) together with differ- ent naturally originated sources of alkaline earth metal cations into one-part alkali activated (geopoly- mer) binder binders. The binder of hydraulic binders was assessed based on their strength development attributes and morphology with respect to silica content, diffusion of Calcium ions and compositions of Alkali activator. The particle size distribution, the chemical composition, mineralogy, bond environment, of binder particles and effective immobilization of heavy metals of hydrated binder pastes were also inspected. The results highlighted that the ternary blend of combustion ashes to produce hydraulic binders with strength development qualities and safe disposal as material for building construction. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Large-volume use of industrial wastes for production of con- struction materials can divert large quantities of industrial byprod- ucts from landfills for value-added use towards improving the sustainability and economics of infrastructure systems [1–3]. This practice can also mitigate the release of toxic leachates to the envi- ronment by stabilizing the hazardous constituents of some indus- trial byproducts. The slate of fuels burned by power plants to generate electricity has been expanded beyond coal, to include biomass and municipal solid waste (among others). Combustion of these fuels generates solid residues (ash). Examples of these solid residues are coal fly ash, bottom ash resulting from combustion of municipal solid wastes, and biomass (e.g., rice husk) ash [4–6]. These ashes largely comprise the mineral constituents of each fuel. The combustion process also concentrates any heavy metal constituents of the fuel in ash, which should be addressed in development of applications for the ash. The work reported herein develops an alternative binder chem- istry using a blend of coal, biomass and municipal solid waste com- bustion ashes. The binder chemistry used here yields hydration products with desirable capabilities for stabilization of heavy met- als. Brief introductions to coal fly ash, rice husk ash, and municipal solid waste combustion ash are presented below followed by a concise introduction to the hydraulic binder chemistry considered here. A sustainable mechanochemical approach was adopted for https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.06.054 0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: almalkaw@msu.edu (A.T. Almalkawi), soroushi@msu.edu (P. Soroushian). Construction and Building Materials 220 (2019) 516–524 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat