Abstract

Currently, sustainability and innovation are priorities for companies in the construction sector.A sustainable building material minimizes its environmental impact throughout the stages ofits life cycle. Desalination plants produce drinking water and brines, and the latter, currentlyconsidered as waste, can be used in the manufacture of concrete. The objective of this workwas to evaluate the compressive strength of concretes using brines from a desalination plantby reverse osmosis as a partial substitute for drinking water (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%, w%) atdifferent ages (7, 14 and 28 days). The results showed that as the rejection water contentincreases, both the workability and the setting time of the concrete samples decrease, and onthe other hand, the compressive strength increases at all ages and for all the substitutionsstudied. Using reject water in the manufacture of concrete is considered an interestingalternative for construction in arid areas and can contribute to the reduction of anenvironmental liability that until now has been dumped into the ocean.