Evaluating the use of bagasse ash as a supplementary material for portland cement.

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse ash is obtained as by-product from the cogeneration combustion boilers in sugar industries. Bagasse ash is mainly composed of reactive silica and can be used as a pozzolanic material in cement. In this study, sugarcane bagasse was used as a supplementary material in Portland cement by varying the percentage weight of ash from 0 to 30% in cement samples P0 (96.5% clinker and 0% bagasse ash), P10 (86.5% clinker and 10% bagasse ash), P20 (76.5% clinker and 20% bagasse ash) and P30 (66.5% clinker and 30% bagasse ash) with sampleP0 used as a control experiment. The chemical analysis of the supplementary material and cement samples was done using wet analysis and FL-Smidth X-ray analyzer. The cement sample were also tested for their physical properties thus fineness and normal consistency. Results indicate that not all cement samples expanded. Test for loss on ignition (LOI) of samples showed that all the values were below 5%, as required by EAS 148-2 except for sample P30 with a value of 5.83%. It was concluded that the ash can be used as a supplementary material for Portland cement when the ash added is 20% since the LOI value satisfies the requirement of EAS 148-2 (≤ 5%). The type of cement produced would be named as CEM II (B-V)-32.5.