Mineral wool waste-based geopolymers

Mineral wools –a general term for stone wool and glass wool– are the most common building insulation materials in the world. The annual amount of mineral wool waste generated in Europe totaled 2.3 Mt in 2010 – including wastes from the mineral wool production and from the construction and demolition industry. Unfortunately, mineral wools are often considered unrecyclable due to their fibrous nature and low density. Thus, the utilisation of post-consumer mineral wool waste in different applications remains low.

Mineral wools have a great potential as geopolymer precursors as they have suitable chemical and mineralogical compositions. As geopolymers can provide significant CO₂ emission reductions compared to traditional Portland cement concretes, using mineral wool waste as geopolymer precursor would be an attractive utilisation path. Here, we show that mineral wool waste can be geopolymerised to form sustainable cements with good mechanical properties. Geopolymerisation of mineral wool waste therefore offers an attractive route for waste valorisation and production of low-CO₂ cements.