Effectiveness of novel and traditional methods to incorporate industrial wastes in cementitious materials—An overview

•Efficient way to achieve sustainability is utilizing industrial wastes in cementitious materials.•The substitution ratio of industrial wastes in cement is relatively low by traditional methods.•High performance blended cements with higher waste addition can be prepared by novel methods.•Novel methods of incorporating industrial wastes in blended cement are more efficient.•Novel methods lead to significant role in CO2 emissions reducing, resources and energy conservation.

Sustainable development and eco-efficiency are urgent and imperative demands for the well-being of our planet, continued growth of a society, and human development. Traditional Portland cement production seems unsustainable due to consumption of huge natural resources and energy and significant CO2 emissions. The volume of industrial wastes is increasing significantly, leading to a number of economical and ecological problems. Although industrial wastes can be incorporated in cementitious materials by various traditional methods, the substitution ratio of industrial wastes in cementitious materials is relatively low to avoid unacceptable performance loss. Novel methods, such as improving hydraulic activities of metallurgical slags by adding composition adjusting material at high temperature, improving surface cementitious properties of fly ashes by dehydration and rehydration treatment, and arranging cement clinker and industrial wastes in the particle size distribution of blended cements according to their hydraulic activities, are reviewed. These methods provide more effective approach to prepare high performance blended cements with larger amount of industrial wastes, leading to a very significant role in CO2 emissions reducing, resources and energy conservation of the cement industry.