Characterization of enhanced pozzolanic biomass ash

Abstract

The environmental concerns of carbon emissions by the energy industry have led to a change in the way energy is generated. Biomass and co-firing coal and biomass are now considered as the most promising technology and renewable energy source.This paper is a part of ongoing research investigating the use of Enhanced Biomass Ash (EBA) generated from Drax power station (UK) in order to promote its usage as a supplementary cementitious material. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of ash were characterized by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques. The strength activity index (SAI) of enhanced biomass ash mortar with Partial replacement of cement at 25% was also investigated and compared with commercial coal fly ash (CFA) mortar. The XRF results showed that the chemical composition of enhanced biomass ash is similar to class F fly ash according to American Standard Testing and Materials (ASTM) C618 and satisfies the main chemical composition requirements of European Standard (EN450-1). The results also showed that the enhanced biomass ash can be considered reactive as it contains 84% amorphous materials and its activity index at 28 and 90 days met the EN450-1 specifications. This indicates that the incorporation of biomass ash in concrete may give similar properties to concrete with coal fly ash.