Recycling of electrolytic manganese solid waste in autoclaved bricks preparation in China

China has played a dominant role in global electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) production, accounting for over 98 % of the total world capacity since 2008. However, with the rapid development of the EMM industry and depletion of mineral ores, electrolytic manganese solid waste (EMSW) is piling up, so more large-scale landfills are needed. The environmental problems generated by EMSW pose severe threats to soil and ground water, and have become the hot issues in society. The aim is to consume and recycle EMSW, and the primary route is to make autoclaved bricks. However, less attention has been given to the procedure and strength-forming mechanism of EMSW bricks, not to mention the production line of the brick. On the basis of physical and chemical property analysis, the pretreatment process of EMSW was indispensable to solidify/stabilize the heavy metals, such as Mn, Zn, Cd, Pb, etc.. This paper expatiated on the procedure of making EMSW autoclaved bricks, analyzed in detail the strength formed by different cementitious materials with cement properties, and introduced the practical engineering of EMSW autoclaved bricks. The results showed that the pretreatment process with quicklime was effective in solidifying/stabilizing the heavy metals. The compressive strength of EMSW bricks reached 10.05 MPa when quicklime 9 % (w/w) added. Cement may be an ideal cementitious material to create EMSW bricks of high strength in experiments and on the production line. Quicklime and cement used simultaneously produced a lower strength than that when adding cement alone because the gypsum from EMSW and an alkali could generate deleterious effects, e.g., expansion or burst. In the production line of EMSW bricks, an appropriate mix proportion to make high-quality autoclaved bricks was determined: EMSW 30–40 %, cement 10–20 %, and aggregates 40–60 %. The low content of heavy metals tested by toxicity leaching may deduce that the EMSW autoclaved bricks have low environmental risk. However, long-term environmental risk evaluation will be needed, requiring more tests and leaching modeling. Employing EMSW to make high-quality autoclaved bricks may be a promising waste-to-resource strategy.