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POZZOLANA ACTIVE WHEAT STRAW ASH AS ADMIXTURE FOR CEMENT-BASED CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS

Ondrej Jankovsky

Abstract

Cement manufacturing has been always ranked in the list of the main sources of carbon emissions among industrial activities. Almost 5-7% of global CO2 emissions are caused by cement plants, while about 900 kg CO2 is emitted to the atmosphere for producing one ton of cement. On this account, there is laid pressure to reduce cement consumption by the use of alternative binders. In this paper, we would like to show that wheat straw ash can be used for the fabrication of construction composites with lower cement content. Biomass ash from packed wheat straw was characterized using X-Ray fluorescence, X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. In the next step, the ash pozzolanic activity was accessed using Chapelle test. Since the examined biomass was pozzolana active, it was used as partial Portland cement replacement in blended binder based pastes. The content of biomass ash in paste mixes was 10, 15 and 20 mass% of cement respectively. The water/binder ratio was 0.4. For the casted paste samples, bulk density, matrix density, and total open porosity were measured. In order to prove pozzolanic character of the wheat straw ash, mechanical resistivity of paste samples was tested. In these tests, compressive strength and flexural strength were measured and strength activity index was calculated. Experimental data showed that an application of biomass as from combustion of wheat straw in the amount up to 20 mass% of cement provided sufficient mechanical resistivity of the cement paste. In summary, the analysed ash was found to be prospective material for concrete industry contributing to the reduction of CO2 emission.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/62/s26.044

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