Indian Geotechnical Conference 2017 GeoNEst

14-16 December 2017, IIT Guwahati, India

Stabilization of Red Mud Using Low Ash Coal Fly Ash

Shamshad Alam
Sarat Kumar Das
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela – 769008
E-mail: safzal88@gmail.com; saratdas@rediffmail.com

B. Hanumantha Rao
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar – 751013
E-mail: bhrao@iitbbs.ac.in

ABSTRACT: Red mud (RM) is highly alkaline (pH>11) waste product generated from Aluminum refinery. It is stored
either in dry or in slurry form consuming large area of useable land. Storage of red mud also causes the environmental
problem by polluting the surrounding soil, surface water bodies and ground water. Fly ash is also one of the major
industrial wastes generated during the production of thermal energy. In the present study, laboratory experiments have
been carried out for possible ex-situ utilization of red mud. The red mud is stabilized by using 10%, 30% and 50% fly
ash by weight. It was found that the addition of fly ash decreases the maximum dry unit weight which in turn reduces
the self-weight of the embankment material. The unconfined compressive strength was found maximum in case of 30%
fly ash content. Result shows that the curing period increases the unconfined compressive strength of stabilized red
mud. The effect of 12 alternate wet-dry cycle on the unconfined compressive strength of stabilize red mud was also
studied. Also, the stabilization of red mud using fly ash was found effective in reducing the pH value.
Keywords: Red mud; Fly ash; Compressive strength; Durability; pH; Geotechnical material
1. Introduction Durability study in terms of soil-cement loss due to
Rapid growth in the generation of industrial solid wastes repeated wetting-drying was made on the RM stabilized
poses challenge for its disposal and storage. Red mud with different percentages (10%, 30% and 50%) of fly
(RM) is one of the major industrial wastes generated by ash. The samples for durability study were prepared at
the aluminum industry. During the production of every their respective OMC and were cured for 7 days in
ton of alumina, approximately 0.8 – 1.5 tons of RM is humidity chamber (HC) at 210C and 100% humidity.
generated (Nath et al. 2015). Around 120 million tons of After 7 days, the samples were submerged in water for 5
red mud (RM) is produced every year globally (Xue et al. hours and then kept in oven at 710C for 42 hours. The
2015). India produces approximately 4.71 million tons of weight of samples was measured before and after
RM every year (Rout et al. 2013) and its disposal requires submerging it into water. The chemistry of FA stabilized
vast tract of land. The storage of these wastes RM is explained in term of mineralogical phase present
contaminates the water bodies and agricultural land due and the pH value. The XRD micro graph is obtained
to the presence of leachable toxic element. There is an using Rigaku Japan/Ultima-iv model with copper target
urgent need to utilize the waste in bulk exploiting the and the pH is measured using digital pH meter (HACH
possibilities offered by geotechnical engineering. Many a HQ40d). All the laboratory investigations were
times the power plant is close to the aluminum industry performed as per the relevant Indian standard and ASTM
which produces fly ash as its waste material. Therefore, standard.
based on the laboratory findings, this research
3. Results and Discussion
characterizes the fly ash (FA) stabilized RM as a
geotechnical engineering material. Though many 3.1 Compaction characteristics
researchers (Sahu et al. 2011) have studied the possibility The moisture content-dry unit weight relation of the red
to utilize the red mud in chemical industries, studies mud stabilized with different percentage of fly ash was
related to geotechnical engineering is limited (Coruh and established using light compaction. The test was
Ergun 2010; Rubinos et al. 2016) due to low strength and performed as per the Indian standard (IS: 2270, part 7)
high pH values. and the compaction curve is shown in Fig. 1. The
2. Materials and Methodology maximum dry unit weight of un-stabilized red mud is
Red mud used in the present study was collected from found to be 15.2kN/m3 which is higher than that of the
HINDALCO, Muri, Jharkhand, which is disposed in dry stabilized red mud. From Fig. 1, it is found that the
form with more than 65% solid content. In this study, the increase in fly ash percentage reduces the maximum dry
RM is stabilized by using 10%, 30% and 50% fly ash by unit weight. The red mud stabilized with 50% of fly ash
weight. The compaction characteristics of stabilized red shows the lowest value of maximum dry unit weight
mud was studied to find the maximum dry unit weight (12.80kN/m3). The lower value of maximum dry unit
and optimum moisture content (OMC). Unconfined weight of stabilized red mud may be due to the lower
compressive strength (UCS) test was performed to study specific gravity of fly ash. This offers the advantage of
the compressive strength of stabilized red mud. The UCS reduced self-weight of the embankment material.
samples with different percentage of FA were prepared at
their OMC and cured for 3, 7, and 14 days in humidity
chamber (HC) as well as at ambient temperature (AT).
1
Stabilization of red mud using low ash coal fly ash

15.5 maximum UCS (910.71 ± 9.90% kPa). The 14 days UCS

of the RM stabilized with 30% FA are found as 1335.97
15.0
± 2.39% kPa and 2247.04 ± 6.36% kPa for HC and AT

Ze
curing, respectively.

ro
Dry Unit Weight (kN/m3) 14.5

air
v
oid
2500
14.0

lin
3 days

e
7 days

fo r
13.5
14 days

RM
2000
13.0

12.5 1500

UCS (kPa)
RM
RM + 10% FA
12.0
RM + 30% FA
RM + 50% FA 1000
11.5
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Moisture Content (%)
500
Fig. 1 Compaction curve of stabilize red mud

3.2 Unconfined compressive strength 0

The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test for 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
stabilized RM was performed as per Indian standard (IS: Percentage of fly ash (%)
2270, part 10). The test was performed on three replicas Fig. 3 UCS of stabilized red mud cured in HC
of each sample and a typical strain-stress curve of the RM 2500
stabilized with 10% FA and cured for 3 days is shown in 3 days
Fig. 2. 7 days
14 days
2000
1200

1000 1500
UCS (kPa)

800
1000
Stress (kPa)

600
500

400

200
0
0.0 0.5
Fig. 2 Strain-stress curve of stabilized red mud
It is found that the sample cured at ambient temperature
(AT) shows higher UCS value as compared to the sample
cured in humidity chamber (HC). Also, the post peak
behavior of the sample cured at ambient temperature
shows the brittle failure.
A comparison between the UCS values of RM stabilized
with different percentage of FA has been made in Fig. 3
and Fig. 4. The figures show the comparison between the
UCS values of stabilized RM cured in HC (Fig. 3) and
AT (Fig. 4). In Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, a comparison between
the UCS values of stabilized RM cured for different
curing period is also shown. It can be seen from the
figures (Fig. 3 and 4) that the UCS value increases with
the increase in curing period.
Also, for a particular curing period, the sample cured at
ambient temperature shows higher UCS. It is also found
that for any curing period and curing condition, RM
stabilized with 30% of FA gives the maximum UCS
except 3 days curing in HC. In case of humidity chamber
curing for 3 days, RM stabilized with 50% FA shows the
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
RM+10% FA, 3 Days HC curing Percentage of fly ash (%)
RM+10% FA, 3 Days RT curing Fig. 4 UCS of stabilized red mud cured at AT
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Strain (%) 3.3 Durability
Durability study of the geotechnical material is important
when it is used in the structures which undergo repeated
wetting and drying. So in this research, durability study
of stabilized RM was made in terms of soil-cement loss
due to repeated wetting-drying as per ASTM standard
(D559). The unstabilized RM was not found durable as
the sample collapsed in the first wetting. The UCS test
was performed on three replicas of each stabilized
samples after 12 wet-dry cycles. It is found that the RM
stabilized with 30% FA gives more UCS (2840 ± 2.70%
kPa) as compared to RM stabilized with 10% and 50%
fly ash as shown in Fig. 5. He and Zhang (2011) found
similar value of UCS (3MPa) for red mud and fly ash
(80:20) based geopolymer. In the Fig. 5, a comparison
between the UCS values of samples subjected to wet-dry
cycles and samples cured for 28 days in HC is made. It
can be seen that the UCS of sample that had undergone
12 wet-dry cycles is more than that of UCS (1457.79
±11.71% kPa) of sample cured in HC for 28 days.

2
 Indian Geotechnical Conference 2017 - GeoNEst
14-16 December 2017, IIT Guwahati, India
3500 2 1=Mullite, 2=Quartz, 3=Calcite,
Sample subjected to 12 wet-dry cycle 4=Hematite, 5=Boehmite, 6=Sodalite,
Sample cured for 28 days in HC 7=C-S-H
3000
7 7
3
4
7
2500 7 7 7 1
7 7
2 RM+50%FA
UCS (kPa)

2000 4
6 3 7
77
7 7 77 7 1 7 7 7
65
1500
RM+30%FA
4
6 7
7 2 3
1000 7 77 7 7
65 7 7 1 7

6 2 4 RM+10%FA
500 6 1
RM

0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Position (2)
Percentage of fly ash (%) Fig. 6 XRD pattern of stabilized red mud
Fig. 5 UCS of stabilized red mud after 12 wet-dry cycle
The pH of the sample stabilized with different percentage
The gain in strength may be attributed to the formation of of FA was studied. The sample for pH was prepared by
calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel in the stabilized RM mixing the stabilized sample in distilled water with 1:1
as discussed in next section (section 3.4). liquid to solid ratio. Then the water is separated from
solution using filter paper and the pH of water is
3.4 Chemistry and morphology measured. The result shows that stabilization of RM with
The chemistry of the stabilized red mud was studied in 50% FA lowers the pH from 11.56 to 9.24. The drop in
term of mineralogical composition using XRD and XRF pH value will reduce the leaching of toxic element.
analysis. The percentage of different chemicals present in However, the proper analysis in this regard is required.
the fly ash and red mud are presented in Table 1.
The SEM image of the stabilized red mud is shown in
Table-1 Chemical composition of fly ash and red mud Fig. 7. The figure (Fig. 7) shows the dense sponge matrix
of C-S-H gel, which fills the void between the unreacted
Chemicals % by weight particles and bind them together.
Fly ash Red mud
Al2O3 15.18 16.80
Fe2O3 14.97 35.54
SiO2 36.10 15.63
C-S-H gel
MgO 8.05 0.10
CaO 14.20 1.24
Na2O 0.51 13.56
SO3 8.24 0.23
It is found that SiO2 is the major chemical present in fly
ash followed by Al2O3, Fe2O3 and CaO. However, in red
mud, Fe2O3 is the major chemical followed by Al2O3,
SiO2 and Na2O. Fig. 7 SEM image showing dense matrix of C-S-H gel
The XRD pattern of the unstabilized and stabilized red 3.5 Direct shear test
mud is shown in Fig. 6. The major chemicals present in From the laboratory investigations discussed in Section
the unstabilized red mud are oxides of iron and silicon in 3.2 and 3.3, it is found that the red mud stabilized with
the form of hematite and quartz, respectively. Along with 30% of fly ash by weight gives the maximum UCS.
that, mullite and sodalite (an aluminium silicate) are also Therefore, in this section, shear strength of RM stabilized
found in unstabilized red mud. The stabilization of red with 30% FA is investigated using laboratory direct shear
mud using fly ash results in the formation of calcium test as per Indian standard (IS: 2270, part 13). The test is
silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel. The XRD pattern of performed on stabilized RM compacted at OMC and by
stabilized red mud (Fig. 6) shows several peaks of C-S-H. applying normal stresses of 50kPa, 100kPa and 150kPa.
The C-S-H gel formed in the stabilized red mud fill the The strain-stress behaviors of stabilized red mud obtained
void between the unreacted particles; thereby increase the by direct shear test at different normal stresses are shown
compressive strength (Yip et al. 2005). The XRD pattern in Fig. 8. It is found from Fig. 8 that the shear stress
(Fig. 6) of RM stabilized with 30% FA shows more asymptotically reaches the residual stress which is similar
number of C-S-H peaks with high intensity as compare to to that of loose sand and normally consolidated clay
RM stabilized with 10% and 50% FA. The higher number (Dafalla, 2013).
of strong peaks shows higher percentage of C-S-H gel;
thereby giving the higher strength.

3
Stabilization of red mud using low ash coal fly ash

100 3. Stabilized sample gone through 12 wet-dry

90 Stress = 80.70 kPa cycles shows higher UCS as compare to sample
cured in humidity chamber for 28 days.
80
4. Microstructure analysis of stabilized sample
70 Stress = 60.50 kPa gone through wet-dry cycles shows the
60 formation of C-S-H gels; thereby increasing the
Stress (kPa)

50 compressive strength.
40 Stress = 30.70 kPa 5. Cohesion and angle of internal friction value of
uncured red mud stabilized by 30% was found to
30
be 7.30kPa and 26.570, respectively. However,
20 the value may varies with curing period.
Normal Stress =50kPa
10 Normal Stress =100kPa References
Normal Stress =150kPa
0 Coruh, S. and Ergun, O. N. (2010) Use of Flyash,
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Strain (%) Phosphogypsum and Red Mud as a Liner Material for
the Disposal of Hazardous Zinc Leach Residue Waste,
Fig. 8 Strain-stress response under direct shear Journal of Hazardous Materials, 173, pp. 468-473.

The peak shear stresses are found as 30.70kPa, 60.50kPa Dafalla, M. A. (2013) Effect of clay and moisture content
and 80.70kPa for the normal stresses of 50kPa, 100kPa on direct shear test for clay-sand mixtures, Advance in
and 150kPa, respectively. The failure envelope using the Material Science and Engineering, 4, pp 1-8.
normal stress and corresponding shear stress is shown in He, J. and Zhang, G. (2011) Geopolymerization of red
Fig. 9. mud and fly ash for civil infrastructure applications,
90 Geo-Frontiers, pp. 1287-1296.
IS: 2270, part 7 (2011) Determination of water content-
80
pe dry density relation using light compaction, Bureau of
v elo
en Indian Standard, New Delhi.
70 re
ilu
Fa
Shear Stress (kPa)

IS: 2270, part 10 (2006) Determination of unconfined

60 compressive strength, Bureau of Indian Standard, New
Delhi.
50
IS: 2270, part 13 (2002) Direct shear test, Bureau of
40 Indian Standard, New Delhi.
Nath, H., Sahoo, P. and Sahoo, A. (2015)
30
Cohession = 7.3 kPa Characterization of red mud treated under high
Angle of internal frition = 26.570 temperature fluidization, Powder Technology, 269, pp.
20
40 60 80 100 120 140 160
233-239.
Normal Stress (kPa) Rout, S. K., Sahoo, T. and Das, S. K. (2013) Design of
Fig. 9 Plot between normal stress and shear stress Tailing Dam using Red Mud , Central Europian Journal
Using the failure envelope (Fig. 9), the cohesion and the of Engineering, 3(2), pp. 316-328.
angle of internal friction values are calculated as 7.3kPa Rubinos, D. A., Spagnoli, G. and Barral, M. T. (2016)
and 26.570, respectively. However, it may be mentioned Chemical and environmental compatibility of red mud
here that the shear test results are based on the uncured as liners for hazardous waste containment, International
samples. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 13,
4. Conclusions pp. 773-792.
Based on the laboratory investigations of low ash coal fly Sahu, R. C., Patel, R. and Ray, B. C. (2011) Removal of
ash stabilized red mud, following conclusions have been Hydrogen Sulfide using Red Mud at Ambient
drawn: Conditions , Fuel Processing Technology, 92, pp.1587-
1. Increasing the percentage of fly ash decreases 1592.
the maximum dry unit weight; thereby Xue, S., Zhu, F., Kong, X., Wu, C., Huang, L., Huang, N.
decreasing the self-weight of geotechnical and Hartley, W. (2016) A review of the characterization
structure. and revegetation of bauxite residues (Red mud),
2. Red mud stabilized with 30% fly ash gives the Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 23 (2),
maximum UCS. The UCS increases with pp. 1120-1132.
increase in curing period. Also, stabilized Yip C. K., Lukey, G. C. and van Deventer, J. S. J. (2005)
sample cured at ambient temperature gives more The coexistence of geopolymeric gel and calcium
UCS as compared to sample cured in humidity silicate hydrate at early stage of alkaline activation,
chamber. Cement and Concrete Research, 35, pp. 1688-1697.