Use of Bauxite Residue for Construction Material—A Review

Sustainable development is the key aspect to reduce the cause of global warming all over the world. Due to the rapid growth of industry, by-product wastes such as fly ash (FA), red mud (RM), and ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) also generate in large amount. Dumping of these by-product wastes requires a large land area and they are reason for environmental issues like groundwater contamination, soil contamination, and air pollution; hence, finding a suitable place for disposing these wastes is the foremost goal. RM, a residue of bauxite, obtained at the time of aluminum production can be used for various civil engineering purposes without compromising the engineering characteristics. The production of conventional civil materials like cement and bricks causes more CO2 emission to the environment whereas the reuse of RM for geopolymerization decreases the CO2 emission as well as cost effective by declining the land used for its dumping. In this review paper, a brief analysis of different geopolymers made by RM and their use as a geotechnical material is discussed with the shortcomings and the omissions for future trends. The tests results like strength, durability, SEM, XRD, leaching, water absorption of common variety of geopolymers, namely binder, brick, road base material, paver block, are discussed for better understanding the improvement in engineering characteristics along with variation in different proportion of RM with other waste materials and alkalis.