Study on application and environmental effect of phosphogypsum-fly ash-red mud composite cemented paste backfill

Phosphogypsum (PG) cementitious paste backfill (CPB) was prepared by using PG and fly ash (FA) as the main raw materials, red mud (RM) as the alkaline activator, Portland cement (OPC) as the binder, and silica fume (SF) as the additive, and its properties were investigated to achieve the objective of “treating harm with waste.” The results showed that the addition of OPC facilitated the flowability of the slurry, while the addition of RM and SF had the opposite effect. The slurry presented ideal flowability when the water/binder ratio was 0.2 and the superplasticizer (SP) content was 0.7%. The mechanical properties and water resistance were improved significantly with increasing OPC, RM, and SF doping. The strength of the CPB material exceeded 22 MPa after curing at room temperature for 28 days, which met the mine filling requirements. Changes in the ion concentrations of the solution were first monitored during immersion. The dissolution rules of Ca2+ and SO42− at different immersion ages confirmed that RM promoted the continuous hydration of CPB, which was the key to improve water resistance. Microstructural analysis showed that the main hydration products were AFt and C-S-H, which played an important role in the strength development of the material. The leaching results demonstrated that the metal ion content satisfied the requirements of the III categories of Chinese environmental standards (GB/T 14848-2017), indicating that the technology is a reliable and environmentally friendly technology for PG, FA, and RM recovery that can simultaneously support safe mining.