Natural zeolites usually exhibit pozzolanic activity without any additional treatment, e.g. thermal activation. They have been used for building since the ancient Roman Empire times in the production of hydraulic cements and concretes. Nowadays, there are many discussions involving the natural zeolites pozzolanic reactivity in the incorporation of the Portland cement composition. The appropriate use of pozzolans enables the production of special cements with lower manufacturing cost and with a greater durability in comparison with the corresponding cements without addition. In Brazil, zeolite consumption comes either from the importation of foreign countries or synthetic products. No zeolite mine is available in the country and only few geological occurrences were already described in the literature without any commercial interest. In northeast Brazil, the Geological Survey (CPRM) discovered zeolite-bearing sandstones related to Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Parnaíba Paleozoic Basin. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possible use of such sandstones as pozzolan for using in Portland cements (CPI-S). A bulk sample of the zeolitic sandstone (AZ) was collected in the field. In the laboratory, preparation included drying, milling and sieving at the following grain-size fractions, in order to remove quartz and concentrate the zeolite: 100# (AZ-1), 200# (AZ-2) and 325# (AZ-3). After mineralogical evaluation, the AZ-2 fraction was selected for further analysis and assays. The experimental study was mainly based on mineralogical characterization, including: X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical analysis and heat flow calorimetry, besides pozzolanic activity assay and compressive strength. The results show that the mineralogical composition of the zeolitic sandstone is mainly quartz, zeolite (stilbite) and smectite. Stilbite is the main pozzolanic phase, and the smectite can also play an important role. The hydration of the Portland cement was accelerated due to the very fine grained nature of the material. Meanwhile, the reactivity obtained was slightly below the standard requirements to be used in industrial scale. Additional studies should be carried out in order to evaluate if a further thermal treatment (between 300 °C and 500 °C) may increase the pozzolanic activity due to the stilbite destruction around this temperature. The same happens with kaolinite that needs thermal treatment above 550 ºC to convert to the amorphous phase metakaolin in order to be used as one of the most commons pozzolans in the cement industry. The main purpose was to contribute for the production of an alternative kind of cement which produces less pollution to the environment (CO2 decrease in the atmosphere) with cost saving. In addition, it is expected to contribute for the exploitation of the sedimentary zeolites occurrences which have been relatively well studied from a geological point, but are still not mined.
Portland cement; pozzolan; zeolites; stilbite
