Mechanical performance of concrete incorporating fluidized catalytic cracking residue from the petrochemical industry as a supplementary cementitious material

Tóm tắt

The increasing demand for sustainable construction materials has highlighted the need to reduce the environmental footprint of cement production. This study investigates the reuse of petrochemical residue fluidized catalytic cracking (RFCC) waste as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete. RFCC was subjected to two activation methods: high-temperature treatment at 800, 1000, and 1200 °C, and mechanical grinding to enhance pozzolanic activity. Concrete mixtures were prepared with cement replacement levels ranging from 10% to 50% by mass. Fresh properties, including workability and setting time, and hardened mechanical properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus, were evaluated at 28 days. Results show that RFCC reduces slump and shortens the setting time of concrete mixtures. At 50% cement replacement, compressive and flexural strengths decreased by up to 45%. However, thermal activation at 1000–1200 °C significantly improved compressive and flexural strengths as well as elastic modulus by 10–20% compared to untreated RFCC. Ground RFCC showed lower early-age strength at 10% replacement but outperformed heat-treated RFCC at higher replacement levels (20–50%). The findings demonstrate that properly treated RFCC waste can replace up to 30% of cement without compromising mechanical performance, offering a viable route for cost reduction, carbon emission mitigation, and sustainable concrete production.