Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA): An Environmentally-Friendly Supplemental Cementitious Material for Concrete Production

Title: Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA): An Environmentally-Friendly Supplemental Cementitious Material for Concrete Production
Author(s): N.M. Altwair, S. Kabir
Paper category : conference
Book title: International RILEM Conference on Material Science
Editor(s): W. Brameshuber
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-110-0
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-111-7
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2010
Pages: 113 - 126
Total Pages: 14
Nb references: 27
Language: English

Abstract: As the amount of concrete being produced and consumed around the world continues to increase, environmental concerns about the high levels of carbon dioxide emissions from the production of cement have resulted in growing interest in the field of supplemental cementitious materials in order to reduce the amount of cement required for making concrete. Various studies have been conducted on different industrial waste products in order to determine the effectiveness of their use as a partial replacement for cement in concrete. One such industrial by-product is palm oil fuel ash (POFA), which is produced by burning palm oil shell and husk as fuel in a palm oil mill boiler in order to produce steam to generate electricity for the palm oil extraction process. Although POFA is a hazardous material that is usually sent to the landfill without any commercial gain, POFA has been found to have pozzolanic properties; it is highly reactive and can be used as a unique cement replacement for building construction materials if the POFA is ground to reduce the particle size (GPOFA). Studies conducted on the use of POFA as a pozzolanic material to improve the mechanical properties and durability of concrete has obtained satisfactory results.
Consequently, POFA can be considered an environmentally-friendly substitute for cement when employed as a supplemental cementitious material in concrete.

Online publication: 2010-12-02
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00