Steel slag and iron ore tailings to produce solid brick.

Abstract

The main goals of this work were to verify the potential of reuse of steel slag and iron ore tailings as secondary raw materials to produce solid brick and to evaluate whether this application can consume the amount of slag generated in Brazil. The feasibility of this application was verified through a comparative study. The mechanical behavior of concrete artifacts and pressed bricks made from residues was compared with others described in the literature. The residues were initially characterized using chemical and granulometric analysis. The bricks were produced by mixing different compositions of the residues with the addition of cement in the contents of 0 and 5%. The bricks were pressed in a manual mechanical press and sent to curing. The values of flexural strength of the bricks were higher than 2.0 MPa, and the average weight of the bricks was like those found in the ecological bricks. The simulation with the construction of houses showed that the proposed application can consume the amount of slag generated in Brazil. The generation of the income from carbon credits associated with CO2 reduction is an incentive to implement environmental management tools in Quadrilátero Ferrífero territory, specifically, industrial symbiosis and the carbon market.