A laboratory work with biomass: A cement replacement material in concrete mix

Abstract

The cement production facing the current environmental issue like CO2 emission and scarcity of raw materials, burning of higher amount fossil fuel for production and rapidly increasing demand for cement and concrete can be of a greater problem in the near future. On the other hand there is an ongoing issue of biomass waste management, so there is great opportunity for biomass ash to be used as a cement replacement material as many ongoing researches suggest. This can help to cut down the production of cement and with waste management. The pozzolanic characteristic of several biomass ash can be advantageous, and if the required strength of concrete can be achieved with a certain amount of replacement of cement with biomass ash, then this can be used widely if allowed by structural codes. This report explores the scope of biomass as a cement replacement material in several percentages (5%, 10%, 20%) and shows an effective result with 5 to 10% replacement as the cement with this percentage showed almost same engineering and durability properties like the traditional mix.