A group of researchers from Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT) found out that cement

made with volcanic ash made cities and greener. Studies revealed that pulvering volcanic ash and adding
it to the mix can not only make the process more environmentally friendly, but the resulting structures
stronger as well. When reduced to powder, volcanic ash has handy natural properties when it comes to
binding with water and other materials to create cement-like pastes. Cement production is a multistage
process and takes a lot of energy but as an alternative additive, volcanic ash forms under high heat and
high pressure and nature does all the chemical reactions needed in the production. In the aforementioned
experiment, the team calculated the total embodied energy for cement recipes containing different
proportions of volcanic ash, ranging from 10 percent to 50. The researchers found that substituting 50
percent of the traditional cement with volcanic ash ground down to a particle size of 17 micrometers
reduced the embodied energy of the resulting concrete by 16 percent, although this hampered the overall
strength of the material. Reducing the ash down to a particle size of around six micrometers greatly
boosted its strength, by creating more surface area for the water and cement to bind together. The team
likewise suggested that the proportions can be altered or varied depending upon the strength of concrete
needed for a specific purpose. (Patil, K. et.al., 2018)

Patil, K., C. De Wolf, S.Chin, J. Ochsendorf, A. E.Hajiah, A. Al-Mumin, and O. Büyüköztürk,

“Impact of Embodied Energy on materials/buildings with partial replacement of ordinary Portland
Cement (OPC) by natural Pozzolanic Volcanic Ash”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 177, Pages
547-554, 2018.

In the local setting, a city government-owned Material Recovery Facility (MRF) located in Brgy
Timbao, Binan City Laguna, a city neighbouring the province where Taal Volcano is located has found a
way to reuse the ashes emitted by the volcanic eruption.The facility can produce up to 5,000 bricks a day
which can be used to rebuild schools damaged by the eruption. The content of the bricks include any kind
of plastic which is 30%, ash or sand 25% plus soil 20% and cement 22% plus 3% of water. Binan City
mayor Walfredo “Arman” Dimaguila Jr. was the one who floated the idea of turning the disastrous Taal
Volcano eruption into an opportunity to produce eco-bricks with dry ashes as raw materials. The idea was
an offshoot of its existing solid waste management program that uses shredded plastic waste in the
production of eco-bricks (Adel, 2020).

Adel, R. “Biñan government turns volcanic ash into ‘Taal eco bricks”. Philstar, Jan. 16, 2020.

Conceptual Literature

Volcanic Ash

Volcanic ash (VA) is formed during volcanic eruptions. Ash is created when solid rock shatters
and magma (molten rock) separates into minute particles during explosive volcanic activity. The usually
violent nature of an eruption involving steam (phreatic eruption) results in the magma and solid rock
surrounding the vent is torn into particles of clay to sand size.
The plum that is generally seen above an erupting volcano is composed primarily of ash and
steam. The very fine particles maybe carried away for miles together, settling out as a dust-like layer
across the landscape. This is known as ‘ash fall’. The commonly used term for any material explosively
thrown out from a vent is tephra, also known as pyroclasstic debris. If liquid magma is ejected as spray,
the particles will solidify in the air to small fragments of volcanic glass. Tephra particles of gravel are
termed cinders. The ejection of large quantities of ash will produce an ash cone. A layer of volcanic ash
tends to become cemented together to form a solid rock called ‘tuff’.
The average grain-size of rock fragments and volcanic ash erupted from an exploding volcanic
vent varies largely amongst eruptions and also during a single explosive eruption, lasting from hours to
days. Heavier, large-sized rock fragments typically fall back to the ground on or close to the volcano and
progressively smaller and lighter fragments are blown farther from the volcano by wind. Volcanic ash,
the smallest particles (2 mm in diameter or smaller, even less than 0.001mm), can travel hundreds to
thousands of kilometers downwind from a volcano depending on wind speed, volume of ash erupted, and
height of the eruption column.
The size of ash particles, which fall on the ground decreases exponentially with increasing
distance from a volcano. Also, the range in grain size of volcanic ash typically diminishes downwind
from a volcano. The distribution of ash particle sizes can vary widely. The particle size distribution in
case of Mount St. Helens 1980 (Johnston, 1997) eruptions is given in Table 1. Volcanic ash is not the
product of combustible materials, like the soft fluffy material generated by burning wood, leaves, or
paper. Volcanic ash is hard and abrasive, and does not dissolve in water. It conducts electricity when wet.
Table 1
Particle size variation with distance of Mount St. Helens (Johnston, 1997)
Distance from the Volcano (km) Men particle diameter (mm)
0 4.0
54 0.10
150 0.0625
235 0.0380
414 0.0466
621 0.034

Volcanic Ash Particles Component

Volcanic ash typically consists of tiny particles composed of varying proportions of: (i) Volcanic glass;
and (ii) minerals or crystals; and other rock fragments (lithics).
Volcanic Glass
Volcanic glass shards are the fragments of the molten part of magma that cools down and solidifies
during eruption. Glass shards are remnants of tiny gas bubbles that develop and grow in size during the
final ascent toward the surface. Such shards may consist of many gas bubbles or only a portion of a single
gas bubble. During eruption, the expanding gas breaks the bubbles and surrounding glass into shards of
various sizes and shapes. Shards formed by phreatomagmatic eruptions often have a particularly angular
shape resulting from the violent explosive interaction between magma and water. Glass is relatively hard
(5 on Moh’s scale), and the more angular the glass shards, the more abrasive the ash.
Minerals or Crystals (Phenocrysts)
Minerals within volcanic ash are primarily derived from the magma. These minerals crystallized and
grew within the magma while it was below the earth’s surface. The type of minerals within an ash deposit
depends upon the chemistry of the magma from which it was erupted. Fine minerals may also grow on
the walls of expanding gas bubbles in the magma prior to fragmentation into ash-sized particles.
Crystobalite is a type of silica crystal that forms in this way. Crystobalite is known to cause silicosis in
humans, which is typically contracted by people working for prolonged periods in industries that expose
workers to fine rock dust.

R. Siddique, Waste Materials and By-Products in Concrete. 323 C Springer 2008 324 10

Cite this chapter as:

Siddique R. (2008) Volcanic Ash. In: Waste Materials and By-Products in
Concrete. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-74294-4_10#citeas