Red mud is a highly alkaline waste by-product of the aluminum industry. Although recycling of red mud is being actively researched, a feasible technological solution has not been found yet. In this study, we propose that neutralization of red mud alkalinity could assist in its use as a construction material. Neutralized red mud (LRM + S; pH 6–8) was prepared by adding sulfuric acid to liquefied red mud (LRM; pH 10–12). After adding LRM and LRM + S to cement paste, the heat of hydration, compressive strength, and hydration products were examined. The experiments revealed that the calorific value of the cement paste with LRM was low, and its peak was delayed, when compared with that of plain cement paste (referred to as Plain), whereas the calorific value of the cement paste with LRM + S was similar to that of Plain. At the age of 28 d, the compressive strength of the cement paste with 10% LRM + S was 99% whereas that with 20% LRM was only 55% of the strength of Plain. Thus, our results help to resolve the issue of strength degradation of cementitious materials observed upon the addition of red mud and enable its reuse as a construction material.

In this study, the compressive strength and water contact angle of mortar specimens prepared by mixing two types of water repellent with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and rapid-hardening cement mortar were measured before and after surface abrasion. In addition, the hydration products and chemical bonding of cement mortar with the repellents were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to evaluate the performance of these cement mortar mixtures as repair materials. We found that the fast-hardening cement mortar mixture containing the oligomer water repellent showed the best performance with a high compressive strength and large water contact angle. With the oligomer water repellent, the rapid-hardening cement mortar mixture showed contact angles of 131° and 126° even after a 2 mm abrasion, thereby confirming that the water repellent secured hydrophobicity through strong bonding with the entire cement mortar as well as its surface. The compressive strengths were found to be 34.5 MPa at 3 h and 54.8 MPa at 28 days, confirming that hydration occurred well despite the addition of water repellent.

An increasing amount of red mud (RM) is being generated globally due to the growth in aluminum production. To avoid RM pollution, low-cost methods for effectively recycling RM are being investigated. We propose a method for recycling RM as a construction material. Liquefied RM (LRM) was neutralized by nitric acid and added to cement paste, and the hydration heat, compressive strength, and hydration products were investigated. The cement paste with neutralized LRM had a higher compressive strength than that of plain cement paste and cement paste with LRM without neutralization at 1 day of aging; this indicates that nitric acid neutralization increases the early-age strength. Furthermore, the cement paste with 10% neutralized LRM showed 28 days-compressive strength and hydration heating curves similar to the plain mixture, indicating the positive impact of LRM neutralization on the strength. It was noted that a greater quantity of portlandite was produced earlier in cement paste with neutralized LRM than in that without. Therefore, the proposed method of using RM as a concrete additive has the potential to reduce the cost and environmental impact of both construction materials and RM waste management.