The chemical activation of pozzolanic reaction of fluid catalytic cracking catalyst residue (FC3R) in lime pastes

Previous work has shown the effectiveness of certain chemical activators, especially sodium sulphate, in improving the pozzolanic activity of fluid catalytic cracking catalyst residue (FC3R)/lime pastes, monitored by means of calcium hydroxide (CH) consumption. The influence of several chemical activators on the development of mechanical strength is described, namely sodium sulphate, calcium chloride, sodium hydroxide and NaOH– gypsum mixture. Since the study was performed in pastes, prismatic test specimens of 1 cm × 1 cm × 6 cm were used, which were proposed by Köch–Steinegger for durability studies of cement pastes. In order to evaluate the results, these were compared with the mechanical strength of mortars, and excellent correlations were obtained. The sodium sulphate activator gave very high compressive strengths, especially at early curing ages, although at longer curing ages, the paste without activator yielded satisfactory strength.