Biomass Fuel Ash as a partial substitution for cement, PoFA, Cementitious material

1. Application of Palm Oil Fuel Ash in Concrete
as a Cementitious Material for Construction
ICoWEFS 2021 conference
Arpan Joshi
Flávio Craveiro
Helena Bártolo
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2. a. 1 ton of cement = 1 ton CO2
b. CO2 emission from the cement production.
c. 10 billion tons of concrete is produced annually (Meyer,2009).
d. 5-7 % of CO2 produced from the cement production.
Research Motivation
2

3. a. Production of POFA increases each year
b. Abundant waste from palm industry is creating
environmental pollution
Research Motivation
3

4. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
Palm trees
4

5. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
Figure 1: Pathways to POFA production
5

6.  Waste material generated in power plants as a result of the
combustion of palm oil industry waste for the generation of
electricity
Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
Figure 2: Palm Oil Fuel Ash
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7. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
a) Unground POFA b) Grounded POFA
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Figure 3: POFA particles through scanning electron microscopy
(Tangchirapat et al., 2007)

8. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Pozzolanic material
Chemical Analysis %
OPC POFA
(Mohamad, 2016) (M.A.Tambichik, 2018) (Rajak, 2015) (Awal et al., 2013) (Wi et al., 2018)
(Tangchirapat et al,
2010)
Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) 20.2 43.6 62.60 54.80 59.62 70.9 65.3
Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) 5.7 11.4 4.65 7.40 2.54 5.63 2.5
Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3) 3.0 4.7 8.12 4.47 5.02 3.51 1.9
Calcium Oxide (CaO) 62.5 8.4 5.70 14.00 4.92 3.78 6.4
Potassium Oxide (K2O) 0.87 3.5 9.05 - 7.52 5.66 5.7
Magnesium Oxide (MgO) 2.6 4.8 3.52 4.14 4.52 3.61 3.0
P205 0.28 - - 3.58 -
Sodium Oxide (Na2O) 0.16 0.39 - - 0.76 0.39
0.3
Sulphur Trioxide (SO3) 1.8 2.8 1.16 0.71 1.28 - 0.4
Loss on Ignition (LOI) 2.7 18.0 9.3 - 10.1 10.0
Pozzolanic Activity Index
with OPC
- 59.7 75.37 66.67 67.18 80.04 69.7
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9. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Pozzolanic material
Chemical Analysis %
OPC POFA
(Mohamad, 2016) (M.A.Tambichik, 2018) (Rajak, 2015) (Awal et al., 2013) (Wi et al., 2018)
(Tangchirapat et al,
2010)
Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) 20.2 43.6 62.60 54.80 59.62 70.9 65.3
Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) 5.7 11.4 4.65 7.40 2.54 5.63 2.5
Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3) 3.0 4.7 8.12 4.47 5.02 3.51 1.9
Calcium Oxide (CaO) 62.5 8.4 5.70 14.00 4.92 3.78 6.4
Potassium Oxide (K2O) 0.87 3.5 9.05 - 7.52 5.66 5.7
Magnesium Oxide (MgO) 2.6 4.8 3.52 4.14 4.52 3.61 3.0
P205 0.28 - - 3.58 -
Sodium Oxide (Na2O) 0.16 0.39 - - 0.76 0.39
0.3
Sulphur Trioxide (SO3) 1.8 2.8 1.16 0.71 1.28 - 0.4
Loss on Ignition (LOI) 2.7 18.0 9.3 - 10.1 10.0
Pozzolanic Activity Index
with OPC
- 59.7 75.37 66.67 67.18 80.04 69.7
According to ASTM C618, POFA can be classified as
 Class C Pozzolan if SiO2+ AL2O3+Fe2O3 > 50%
 Class F Pozzolan >70%
 Class N (natural) Pozzolan CaO content in the POFA
(4%) and the pozzolanic activity index 65%.
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10. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Improves Strength and Durability. How?
Figure 4: Depth of chloride penetration in POFA45, POFA10 and PO (M. A. Ismail et al., 2010)
• 5% sodium chloride
• internal structure of POFA10
concrete was denser than
other specimens, due to the filling
effect of C-S-H gel
POFA10
Best
performance
Resistance to
Chloride Diffusion
10

11. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Improves Strength and Durability. How?
Figure 5: Compressive strength of water cured and hydrochloric acid cured samples after 1800 hours
24%
loss
15.9%
loss
Resistance to Acid
Attack
• Ca(OH)2 is susceptible to
acid attack
• POFA creates C-S-H gel that
makes concrete denser
(Philip et al. 2019)
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12. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Improves Strength and Durability. How?
Figure 6: Compressive strength of water cured and sodium sulphate cured samples after 3 months
• 10% Na2SO4 solution
• C-S-H gel thus possess
better resistance to
sulphate attack POFA10
• Higher loss of compressive
strength in control
7%
loss
0.77%
loss 0.64%
loss
Sulphate
Resistance
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13. Palm Oil Fuel Ash ?
• Improves Strength and Durability. How?
Figure 7: Tensile and Compressive strength of PO, POFA45, POFA10 at 28 days (M. A. Ismail et al., 2010)
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14. Palm Oil Fuel Ash
Compressive strength (MPa)
POFA Day 7 Day 28 Day 60 Day 90 Sieve size References
20%
39.7 46.45 . 58.05 10 micron
(Eldagal, O.E.A & Elmukhtar,O. 2015)
43.89 45.41 . 50.52 45 micron
30%
34.55 46.06 . 46.65 10 micron
29.45 41.47 . 45.1 45 micron
20%
. 58.84 . . 10 micron
(Ismail, Budiea, Hussin, & Muthusamy, 2010)
. 54.79 . . 45 micron
0% 33.89 40.23 . . Control
(Aiswarya, Wilson, & Harsha, 2017)
10% 37.1 43.08
90 micron
15% 34.67 40.82
20% 31.68 39.55
0% 68.8 77.5 83.8 87.5 Control
(Sata et al., 2004)
10%
71.7 81.3 86.5 89.1
10 micron
20% 71.1 85.9 88.5 91.5
30%
68.5 79.8 84.7 88.7
Influence of Fineness of POFA
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15. Palm Oil Fuel Ash
Compressive strength (MPa)
POFA Day 7 Day 28 Day 60 Day 90 Sieve size References
20%
39.7 46.45 . 58.05 10 micron
(Eldagal, O.E.A & Elmukhtar,O. 2015)
43.89 45.41 . 50.52 45 micron
30%
34.55 46.06 . 46.65 10 micron
29.45 41.47 . 45.1 45 micron
20%
. 58.84 . . 10 micron
(Ismail, Budiea, Hussin, & Muthusamy, 2010)
. 54.79 . . 45 micron
0% 33.89 40.23 . . Control
(Aiswarya, Wilson, & Harsha, 2017)
10% 37.1 43.08
90 micron
15% 34.67 40.82
20% 31.68 39.55
0% 68.8 77.5 83.8 87.5 Control
(Sata et al., 2004)
10%
71.7 81.3 86.5 89.1
10 micron
20% 71.1 85.9 88.5 91.5
30%
68.5 79.8 84.7 88.7
Influence of Fineness of POFA
15

16. Palm Oil Fuel Ash
Compressive strength (MPa)
POFA Day 7 Day 28 Day 60 Day 90 Sieve size References
20%
39.7 46.45 . 58.05 10 micron
(Eldagal, O.E.A & Elmukhtar,O. 2015)
43.89 45.41 . 50.52 45 micron
30%
34.55 46.06 . 46.65 10 micron
29.45 41.47 . 45.1 45 micron
20%
. 58.84 . . 10 micron
(Ismail, Budiea, Hussin, & Muthusamy,
2010)
. 54.79 . . 45 micron
0% 33.89 40.23 . . Control
(Aiswarya, Wilson, & Harsha, 2017)
10% 37.1 43.08
90 micron
15% 34.67 40.82
20% 31.68 39.55
0% 68.8 77.5 83.8 87.5 Control
(Sata et al., 2004)
10%
71.7 81.3 86.5 89.1
10 micron
20% 71.1 85.9 88.5 91.5
30%
68.5 79.8 84.7 88.7
Influence of Fineness of POFA
Replacement of cement with
POFA – 20 to 30% is good
For Best Result : 20%
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17. Long Term Benefits of Concrete Containing POFA.
• Saving the cost of construction
• Sustainable construction
• Saving energy, ecology and environment
• Solving the problem of landfilling
• Saving our resources
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18. Conclusions
• POFA exhibits excellent pozzolanic properties
• The performance of POFA regarding compressive strength,
durability and resistance to chemicals improves with the
increase in fineness of the POFA
• Optimal replacement rates of 20% of cement with POFA
maximizes the utility as a supplementary cementitious material.
• Several studies show that there is no significant reduction in
concrete strength up to 30% substitution of POFA
• Proper utilization of POFA in cement production will be a
remarkable step towards saving energy and reducing the cost of
concrete
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19. Future work
• There is a need for a concerted effort to promote a technically
sound, environmentally safe and economically justified
utilization of POFA
• The performance of high strength concrete containing POFA
needs to be further studied, as only a few studies were
conducted
• There is a great potential for POFA’s partial material replacement
in aerated concrete to produce high strength concrete
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20. References
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concrete. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), 6(3), 544–546.
Alsubari, B., Sha, P., & Zamin, M. (2016). Utilization of high-volume treated palm oil fuel ash to produce
sustainable self-compacting concrete. Journal of Cleaner Production, 137(7), 982–996.
Altwair, N. (2010). Palm oil fuel ash ( POFA ): An environmentally-friendly supplemental cementitious
material for concrete production. In International Conference on Material Science (pp. 234–247).
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due to alkali-silica reaction. Cement and Concrete Composites, 19(4), 367–372.
Awal, A. S. M. A., & Shehu, I. A. (2013). Evaluation of heat of hydration of concrete containing high
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21. References
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Ismail, M. A., Budiea, A. M. A., Hussin, M. W., & Muthusamy, K. B. (2010). Effect of POFA fineness on
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22. Thank You
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