Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Campus, Khairpur Mirs', Sindh, 66020, Pakistan. ashfaqueahmed@muetkhp.edu.pk
  • 2 Jamilus Research Centre, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Sciences and Technology, Nawabshah, Sindh, 67450, Pakistan
  • 4 Institute of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Jan;29(2):2985-3007.
PMID: 34383212 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-15076-x

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and 'concretization' have increased the use of concrete as the preferred building material. However, the production of cement and other concrete-related activities, contribute significantly to both the carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. Agro-industrial wastes such as Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) and Eggshell Powder (ESP) have been utilized in concrete as supplementary cementitious materials, to reduce the cement content, in order to minimize the carbon footprint and the environmental pollution associated with the dumping of waste. Both POFA and ESP have been utilized in ternary binder foamed concrete; however, higher content of cement replacement tends to reduce the concrete's strength significantly. Therefore, this research was conducted to study the influence of ternary binder foamed concrete, incorporating 30% POFA and 5-15% ESP by weight of the total binder, when reinforced with polypropylene (PP) fibres. Based on the results, the ternary binder foamed concrete showed better strength than the control foamed concrete due to the pozzolanic reaction and the addition of PP fibres slightly improved the strength. Furthermore, ternary binder foamed concrete can reduce up to 33.79% of the total CO2 emissions. In terms of cost, all ternary binder foamed concrete mixes reduced the overall cost of the mix. The lowest cost per 1 MPa was achieved by ternary binder foamed concrete mix which incorporated 30% POFA, 5% ESP and 0.20% PP fibres. However, the optimum S5 ternary binder foamed concrete mix, which incorporated 30% POFA, 10% ESP and 0.20% PP fibres, exhibited a cost of $3.74 per 1 MPa strength, which was $1.1 lower than the control foamed concrete. PP reinforced ternary binder foamed concrete is an eco-efficient and cost-effective concrete that can be used in numerous civil engineering applications, mitigating the environmental and the emissions generated by agro-industrial waste.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Similar publications