Saznizam Sazmee Sinoh

"Structural and environmental evaluation of various structural members made with oil palm by-
products as a lightweight aggregate"
The construction of buildings and infrastructure consumes vast amounts of energy and natural
resources to produce waste and harmful emissions which cause irreparable damage to the
environment. Change is needed in the construction industry to move away from energy intensive
building materials and adopt more sustainable construction materials to achieve the goal of
sustainable development which is development to fulfil present needs without compromising
future needs (Barrow, 2006). One of the ways this can be achieved is through the substitution of
constituent materials in concrete. Specifically, this study will examine how the by-products of
palm oil can be used in concrete to yield improvements to both structural performance and
environmental impact. Thus, the title of this study is "Structural & environmental evaluation of
various structural members made with oil palm by-products as a lightweight aggregate".

Palm oil is extracted from the fruit bunches of the oil palm and what remains is generally
known as oil palm by-products. Various oil palm by-products are available to be studied including
oil palm boiler clinker (OPBC), oil palm shell (OPS) and empty fruit bunches (EFB). With an
approximate 4 million tons of oil palm by-product produced each year in Malaysia, rather than
allow this biomass to be disposed into landfills, the smarter option would be to utilize it in concrete
(Nagaratnam et al., 2016). Indeed, this is one reason why oil palm by-products a promising subject
of research in Malaysia due to its potential to be used on a large scale for building projects in this
country as one of the leading producers of palm oil in the world (Yean & Zhi Dong, 2012). As a
waste material, there is little to no disadvantage to using oil palm by-products in concrete since
there are no additional processes involved in its creation.

It is important to understand why the substitution of concrete's constituent materials plays

such a key role in reducing negative environmental impacts. Concrete is produced at more than
4,200 million metric tons a year as of 2016 which inevitably requires an equally vast amount of
natural resources such as sand, rock, water and various minerals to produce correctly (Van Oss,
2017). As the construction industry's main building material, any reduction to concrete's
environmental footprint has significant positive repercussions to the environment. This is where
researchers turn to alternative materials to act as substitutes or supplements to the constituents of
concrete. Many materials are available to reduce the environmental impact of concrete while not
compromising its structural performance and are now commonly used in the production of
concrete due to the amount of research they have received in the past such as fly ash, blast furnace
slag and rice husk ash. Therefore, more research on the topic of oil palm by-products can only be
beneficial to the advancement of concrete development.

There is a lot of literature on the topic of oil palm by-products in concrete. However, most
of this literature is either focused on structural performance or environmental impact. What
separates this study from other studies in the same field is this study's approach to the topic at hand
which will take into account both the structural and environmental aspects of using oil palm by-
products in concrete. In other words, the study will not only examine how oil palm by-products
influence concrete's structural performance, but also what impact it has on the environment and
the relationship between them. The merging of these two aspects is an effort to pursue a holistic
view of engineering which means an integration of material selection and structural design to
achieve the desired structural performance, yet minimal environmental impact (Swamy, 2003).
Excellent structural performance is not desirable if the corresponding environmental impact is
severe.

As a conclusion, this study is hoped to become an encouragement for more studies to be

directed at sustainable construction materials in an effort to pursue sustainable development in the
construction industry. Not only that, the study is hoped to encourage more studies to relate their
findings to how it affects the environment. This is similar to how most studies are moving towards
relating their results with entrepreneurship skills and how certain findings can be applied in a
practical sense to the real world. This study most certainly relates how structural performance
cannot be the sole factor in designing concrete, but rather it should be part of a holistic approach
to engineering.

References
Barrow, C. J. (2006). Environmental management for sustainable development. (2nd ed.). London
and New York: Routledge.
Nagaratnam, B. H., Rahman, M. E., Mirasa, A. K., Mannan, M. A. & Lame, S. O. (2016).
Workability and heat of hydration of self-compacting concrete incorporating agro-
industrial waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 882-894.
Swamy, N. D. (2003). Holistic design: Key to sustainability in concrete construction. The Indian
Concrete Journal, 27(12), 1291-1299.
Van Oss, H. G. (2017). US Geological Survey: Mineral Commodity Summaries January 2017.
Retrieved from https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cement/mcs-2017-
cemen.pdf
Yean, G. P., & ZhiDong, L. (2012). A Study on Malaysias Palm Oil Position in the World Market
to 2035. Population, 2(1.5), 0-9.