This study investigated the use of coal bottom ash (bottom ash) and CaO-CaCl2-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) binder in the manufacturing of artificial fine aggregates using cold-bonded pelletization. Mixture samples were prepared with varying added contents of bottom ash of varying added contents of bottom ash relative to the weight of the cementless binder (= GGBFS + quicklime (CaO) + calcium chloride (CaCl2)). In the system, the added bottom ash was not simply an inert filler but was dissolved at an early stage. As the ionic concentrations of Ca and Si increased due to dissolved bottom ash, calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) formed both earlier and at higher levels, which increased the strength of the earlier stages. However, the added bottom ash did not affect the total quantities of main reaction products, C-S-H and hydrocalumite, in later phases (e.g., 28 days), but simply accelerated the binder reaction until it had occurred for 14 days. After considering both the mechanical strength and the pelletizing formability of all the mixtures, the proportion with 40 relative weight of bottom ash was selected for the manufacturing of pilot samples of aggregates. The produced fine aggregates had a water absorption rate of 9.83% and demonstrated a much smaller amount of heavy metal leaching than the raw bottom ash.
Keywords: GGBFS; bottom ash; cold-bonded pelletization; fine aggregate; heavy metal leaching.