Dissolution of Volcanic Ash in Alkaline Environment for Cold Consolidation of Inorganic Binders.

A systematic study on the dissolution in concentrated alkali of two volcanic ashes from Cameroon, denoted as DAR and VN, is presented here. One volcanic ash, DAR, was 2 wt% richer in Fe and Ca and 4 wt% lower in Si than the other, designated as VN. Such natural raw materials are complex mixtures of aluminosilicate minerals (kaersutite, plagioclase, magnetite, diopside, thenardite, forsterite, hematite, and goethite) with a good proportion of amorphous phase (52 and 74 wt% for DAR and VN, respectively), which is more reactive than the crystalline phase in alkaline environments.

New Low-Cost Ceramic Microfiltration Membranes for Bacteria Removal.

Safe water provision in low-income countries is constrained by limited financial resources, and the problem is worsened during natural disasters. Thus, there is a need to develop efficient low-cost technologies for point-of-use water treatment. This work reports on the development of new ceramic microfiltration membranes made from mixtures of inexpensive raw materials available locally (kaolin, bentonite and limestone) and their efficiency in rejecting bacteria such as and .

Pozzolanic activity of kaolins containing aluminum hydroxide.

The addition of 10 wt% aluminum hydroxide to two crude kaolinitic clays, a commercial and a natural freshly mined one, has enhanced their pozzolanic activity, more substantially in the natural sample containing gibbsite. The obtained blends were used as replacement of 20 wt% of Portland cement in the formulations of pastes and mortars which exhibited significant decrease of setting time and increase of compressive strength from early age to 28 days. Also, SEM/EDX analyses showed very heterogeneous structures with hydrated phases identified from XRD.

Volcanic ash-based geopolymer cements/concretes: the current state of the art and perspectives.

The progress achieved with the use of volcanic ash for geopolymer synthesis has been critically reviewed in this paper. This consists of an overview of mineralogy and chemistry of volcanic ash. The role of chemical composition and mineral contents of volcanic ash on their reactivity during geopolymerization reaction and, consequently, mechanical properties have been accessed.