"Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas; power generation via combustion of fossil fuels, and production of Portland cement are among the key sources of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Past and ongoing combustion of coal has led to accumulation of billions of tons of coal ash in landfills. While there are concerns with the environmental impacts of the landfilled ash, this ash embodies valuable mineral resources such as aluminosilicates, calcium compounds and alkalis. The main thrust of this project was to make beneficial use of landfilled ash together with supplementary solid minerals and carbon dioxide gas to produce a hydraulic cement via sustainable processing techniques. This hydraulic cement was developed primarily for hazardous waste stabilization/solidification applications. The hydraulic cement chemistry and processing techniques were refined through an experimental investigation, and the effectiveness of this cement in immobilization of heavy metals was verified. The production process of cement utilizes significant quantities of carbon dioxide as raw materials with beneficial effects on the performance characteristics of cement hydrates."--Page ii.
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