Recycling of mineral wool waste as supplementary cementitious material through thermochemical treatment

Mineral wool is commonly used in construction as thermal insulation material. After the product’s lifetime, it is classified as hazardous waste if no trademark of the European Certification Board for Mineral Wool Products (EUCEB) or the German Institute for Quality Assurance and Labelling (RAL) exists. Mineral Wool Waste (MWW) is typically landfilled in Europe, which is challenging due to its low bulk density and dimensional stability. This circumstance highlights the need for alternative recycling methods that increase the recycling rate of construction and demolition (C&D) waste. This article outlines the recycling opportunities of MWW and focuses on the use of thermochemical treatment of different mixtures of input materials to produce a supplementary cementitious material (SCM). The material characterisation results and investigations on the binder suitability demonstrate that the slag fractions after the thermochemical treatment are well-qualified to be used as reactive binder components. Additionally, a material flow analysis was conducted to estimate the substitution potential of MWW as SCM in the Austrian cement industry.