A Review on the Application of Circulating Fluidized Bed Fly Ash in Building Materials

Circulating fluidized bed (CFB)-based coal burning technology is a type of clean coal combustion technology. Owing to its characteristics of low temperature combustion and desulfurization in furnace, the CFB fly ash is quite different from ordinary fly ash. Based on the comprehensive understanding of physical and chemical characteristics of CFB fly ash, this review summarizes the research progress of the application of CFB fly ash in Portland cement, magnesium oxysulfate (MOS) cement, solid-waste-based cementitious material (SWCM), concrete, geopolymer, artificial aggregate, and other building materials. The study shows that CFB fly ash can improve the early physical and mechanical properties and reduce the drying shrinkage properties for cementitious materials. Its unique chemical composition endows it with good application performance in the MOS cement, geopolymer, and SWCM. However, unfavorable characteristics of CFB fly ash, such as loose and porous structure, self-hardening behavior, and expansibility greatly hinder its practical applications in building materials. Therefore, some measures, such as addition of rational water-reducing agent, ultrafine grinding, mixing of ordinary fly ash, controlling the dosage of CFB fly ash, and water-cement ratio, must be taken to improve the negative influence of CFB fly ash on the building materials, in order to expand its application range. This article summarizes the application and research status of CFB fly ash in building materials, aiming at further promoting the research studies on CFB fly ash resource utilization in building materials and improving the efficiency of CFB fly ash resource utilization.