Utilization of Sugar Mill Waste Ash as Pozzolanic Material in Structural Mortar

Abstract

Bagasse is produced as a waste in the sugar production process, which is used as fuel to stoke boilers in the sugar mills. The concluding product of this burning is residual sugarcane bagasse ash (BA), which is normally dumped or used as low-quality fertilizer. The ash for this study was collected from a reputed sugar mill located in the northern region of Bangladesh. Type I Portland cement (PC) was partially replaced with that finely ground bagasse ash without any pretreatment. The ground BA was used as a replacement for Portland cement at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% of BA, respectively, in structural mortar. In addition, chemical characterization, specific gravity, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), setting time, a strength activity index, compressive strength, water absorption, density and durability in a chloride environment of mortar were determined. The strength activity index result indicates that the used BA has the pozzolanic properties to be used as a partial cement replacement. The results showed that, at the age of 56 days, the mortar samples containing 5–15% ground bagasse ash had higher compressive strengths than the control mixture (mortar without ground bagasse ash). Mortar containing 15% ground bagasse ash had the highest mechanical and durability properties. Therefore, the substitution of 15% BA is acceptable for producing good quality structural mortar in the civil engineering construction field except in chloride environments.

Recycling of Egyptian Shammi Corn Stalks for Maintaining Sustainable Cement Industry: Scoring on Sustainable Development Goals

“…These periods also decreased by 20% and 14.6% for CEMA10, respectively, compared with those for CEMA0. This observation contradicts the inherent properties of pozzolanic materials, which suggests a delay in the setting time as the cement percentage diminishes [7]. It is suggested that the high fineness and silica content of SCSA provided a suitable condition to make the 10% (w/w) replacement ratio not a critical point in delaying the reactions between cement and water.…”

“…The ashes of various agricultural wastes, such as sugarcane bagasse [5,6] date palm [5], wheat straw [6], and corn husk, have been utilized as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The term "Agro-cement" is used to describe the mixing of ash-based agricultural residues with cement, which is the main constituent of concrete [7]. This hypothesis is based on the ability of agro-waste ash to acquire higher proportions of amorphous silica, further maintaining a pozzolanic interaction with Ca(OH) 2 , i.e., Ca [8].…”