Navigating regulatory challenges, technical performance and circular economy integration of mineral-based waste materials for sustainable construction: A mini review in the European context.

The integration of mineral-based waste materials is crucial for achieving a sustainable and circular construction sector. Whilst technological and economic aspects receive attention, this mini review spotlights overlooked legal 'regulatory hurdles'. It explores major barriers within the European Union, aiming to compress the current ~30-year material development pipeline.

Sustainable biopolymer soil stabilisation: the effect of microscale chemical characteristics on macroscale mechanical properties.

Unlabelled: Sustainable biopolymer additives offer a promising soil stabilisation methodology, with a strong potential to be tuned to soil's specific nature, allowing the tailoring of mechanical properties for a range of geotechnical applications. However, the biopolymer chemical characteristics driving soil mechanical property modifications have yet to be fully established. Within this study we employ a cross-scale approach, utilising the differing galactose:mannose (G:M) ratios of various Galactomannan biopolymers (Guar Gum G:M 1:2, Locust Bean Gum G:M 1:4, Cassia Gum G:M 1:5) to investigate the effect of microscale chemical functionality upon macroscale soil mechanical properties.

Sustainable biopolymer soil stabilization in saline rich, arid conditions: a 'micro to macro' approach.

Water scarcity in semi-arid/arid regions is driving the use of salt water in mining operations. A consequence of this shift, is the potentially unheeded effect upon Mine Tailing (MT) management. With existing stabilization/solidification methodologies exhibiting vulnerability to MT toxicity and salinity effects, it is essential to explore the scope for more environmentally durable sustainable alternatives under these conditions.

Biopolymer Stabilization/Solidification of Soils: A Rapid, Micro-Macro, Cross-Disciplinary Approach.

In this study, we describe a novel high throughput, micro-macro approach for the identification and efficient design of biopolymer stabilized soil systems. At the "microscopic" scale, we propose a rapid Membrane Enabled Bio-Mineral Affinity Screening (MEBAS) approach supported by Mineral Binding Characterization (MBC) (TGA, ATR-FTIR and ζ Potential), while at the "macroscopic" scale, micro scale results are confirmed by Geotechnical Verification (GV) through unconfined compression testing. We illustrate the methodology using an exemplar mine tailings FeO-SiO system.