Shrinkage property is a significant indicator of the durability of concrete, and the shrinkage of green recycled concrete is particularly problematic. In this paper, construction waste was crushed and screened to generate simple-crushed recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA). The SCRCA was then subjected to particle shaping to create primary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (PPRCA). On this basis, the PPRCA was particle-shaped again to obtain the secondary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (SPRCA). Under conditions where the dosage of cementitious material is 300 kg/m³ and the sand rate is 38%, a new high-belite sulphoaluminate cement (HBSAC) with low carbon emission and superior efficiency was used as the basic cementitious material. Taking the quality of recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA, PPRCA, and SPRCA) and the replacement ratio (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) as the influencing factors to prepare the green recycled concrete, the workability and shrinkage property of the prepared concrete were analyzed. The results show that the water consumption of green recycled concrete decreases as the quality of the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) increases and the replacement ratio decreases, provided that the green recycled concrete achieves the same workability. With the improvement of RCA quality and the decrease of replacement ratio, the shrinkage of recycled concrete decreases. The shrinkage performance of green recycled concrete configured with the SPRCA completely replacing the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) is basically the same as that of the natural aggregate concrete (NAC).

The CO₂ emissions from the cement industry and the production of waste wood chips are increasing with the rapid growth of the construction industry. In order to develop a green environmental protection building material with low thermal conductivity and up to standard mechanical properties, in this study, pine waste wood chips were mixed into cement-based materials as fine aggregate, and three different kinds of cementitious binders were used, including sulfur aluminate cement (SAC), ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), to prepare a recycled light cementitious composite material. The mechanical, thermal conductivity, shrinkage, water absorption, and pore structure of a wood chip light cementitious composite material were studied by changing the Ch/B (the mass ratio of wood chip to binder). The results showed that the strength, dry density, and thermal conductivity of the specimens decreased significantly with the increase in the Ch/B, while the shrinkage, water absorption, and pore size increased with the increase in the Ch/B. By comparing three different kinds of cementitious binders, the dry density of the material prepared with OPC was 942 kg/m³, the compressive strength of the material prepared with SAC was 13.5 MPa, and the thermal conductivity of the material prepared with slag was the lowest at 0.15 W/m/K. From the perspective of low-cost and low-carbon emissions, it was determined that the best way to prepare a light cementitious composite with waste wood chips is to use granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) as the cementitious binder.

Although the energy structure has been gradually enriched in recent years, China, as the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, still accounts for more than 50% of resources. Therefore, in this paper, the high carbon fly ash raw ash (HCFARA) was mechanically activated, and the flotation was treated to obtain decarburized fly ash (DFA) with a loss on ignition of 1.18%, water demand ratio of 101% and strength activity coefficient of 74.5%. With the exception of for water demand ratio, the rest meet the national requirements for the use of Class I fly ash. The foam concrete was prepared by partially replacing cement with decarburized fly ash in different proportions and at different water-to-cement ratios (0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) in order to study its dry density, porosity, compressive strength and thermal conductivity. The results show that the porosity of foam concrete grows with the increase in water-to-cement ratio and fly ash replacement rate. In addition, the dry density and thermal conductivity of the prepared foam concrete can meet the requirements of A05 grade foam concrete (Density less than 500 kg/m³, thermal conductivity less than 0.12 W/(m·k)). The compressive strength can meet the requirements of C0.3 grade foam concrete (Minimum use standard).

Taking advantage of the desulfurization petroleum coke residue obtained from circulating fluidized bed boiler technology to replace a part of cement clinker and prepare the concrete can not only reduce the production of cement clinker and related CO₂ emissions, but can also improve the utilization rate and utilization level of petroleum coke waste, which has good environmental and economic benefits. In this study, through the comprehensive analysis of a compressive strength test, X-ray diffraction test, and Cl⁻ penetration resistance test, the hydration mechanism of desulfurized petroleum coke residue in concrete is revealed, and the optimum replacement ratios of single-added petroleum coke residue, multi-added petroleum coke residue, and mineral admixtures in concrete are evaluated and proposed. The results showed that mixing the 10% petroleum coke residue and 40% blast furnace slag would be most appropriate to replace the cement in concrete, thus the effective utilization of mineral admixtures and coke residue in concrete without strength loss could be realized.

At present, not many studies have considered methods to quantitatively evaluate the reaction efficiency of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) at different curing temperatures. For high volume slag concrete, when the replacement ratio exceeds a certain ’threshold’ value, the superfluous and ineffective slag will no longer react in concrete but simply behave as a fine aggregate, which may cause the decrement of strength. The ’threshold’ value depends on the reaction efficiency of slag. In this study, experiments on mortars with different replacement ratios by slag were conducted at different curing temperatures (20, 30, and 50 °C, respectively), the threshold values of effective replacement ratio by slag were comprehensively analyzed through the reaction efficiency of slag mortar. The results showed that the turning point of the strength curve with replacement ratio can be considered as the threshold value of the effective replacement ratio by slag in mortar. Along with the curing temperature enhancement, the threshold value of the effective replacement ratio by slag in concrete decreased, whereas the reaction efficiency of slag increased. Meanwhile, the analysis of cement effective coefficient (k value) and basicity was also calculated. Based on the obtained threshold values of effective replacement ratio at different curing temperatures, the formula for the determination of reaction efficiency coefficient of slag in the mortar can be established. Therefore, the reaction efficiency coefficient and upper limit of the effective replacement ratio of slag at different temperatures can be calculated more intuitively and quantitatively, providing a theoretical basis and reference for practical engineering applications.

The strength and durability of concrete will be significantly reduced at high volume of mineral admixture, and the poor early strength of concrete also still needs to be solved. In this investigation, a highly active alkaline electrolyzed waters was used as mixing water to improve the early strength and enhance the durability of green concrete with high volume mineral admixture, the influences of alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) on hydration activity of mineral admixture and durability of concrete were determined. The results showed that compared with natural tap water, AEW can accelerate early hydration process of cement in concrete and produce comparatively more hydrated products, leading to a 13.6% higher compressive strength than that of ordinary concrete at early age, but the improvement effect of AEW concrete was relatively reduced at long-term age. Meanwhile, the activity of mineral admixtures could be stimulated by AEW to some extent, the strength and durability performance of AEW concrete after double doping 25% slag and 25% fly ash can still reach the level of ordinary cement concrete without mineral admixtures. The SEM micromorphology of 7 d hydrated natural tap water cement paste was observed to be flaky and tabular, but the AEW cement pastes present obvious cluster and granulation phenomenon. The SEM microstructure of AEW concrete with mineral admixtures is more developed and denser than ordinary tap water concrete with mineral admixtures. Therefore, the AEW probably could realize the effective utilization of about 50% mineral admixture amount of concrete without strength loss, the cement production cost and associated CO2 emission reduced, which has a good economic and environmental benefit.