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Performance of Concrete by Using Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as a Cement

Replacement Material

Conference Paper · July 2015

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.815.29

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 Performance of Concrete by Using Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) As a
Cement Replacement Material

Liyana Ahmad Sofri1,a, Mohd Zulham Affendi Mohd Zahid2,b, Nur Fitriah Isa3,c , ,
Muhammad Azizi Azizan4,d, Muhammad Munsif Ahmad5,e, Mohd Badrul
Hisyam Ab Manaf6,f, Mustaqqim Abdul Rahim7,g, Zuhayr Md Ghazaly8,h ,
Juraida Abu Bakar9,i , Muhammad Shafiq Aiman Ahmran10,j
1
Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti
Malaysia Perlis, 02100 Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia.
2
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis,
02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
a
liyanasofri@unimap.edu.my, bmohdzulham@unimap.edu.my, cnurfitriah@unimap.edu.my,
d e f
aziziazizan@unimap.edu.my, munsif@unimap.edu.my, badrulmanaf@unimap.edu.my,
g h i
mustaqqim@unimap.edu.my, zuhayr@unimap.edu.my, juraida_abubakar@yahoo.com,
j
shafiqaiman3005@gmail.com

Keywords: Portland Cement, Pozzolan, Palm Oil Fuel Ash, Partial Cement Replacement

Abstract. Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) is one of the solid waste in Malaysia and had trouble with the
ash removal. Therefore, the use of waste oil palm ash can overcome the problem of solid waste.
POFA is a pozzolanic material and it can act as a replacement of cement (OPC) to produce concrete
with higher strength and low cost. POFA quality will increase as the range made up to a medium level
of fineness in the size of 50 microns. POFA used to replace OPC is 0%, 10%, 30% and 50% by weight
percent of OPC. POFA concrete compressive strength will be tested after a curing process that
concrete age of 7 days and 28 days. POFA concrete density is also tested and compared with OPC
concrete. Results showed that compressive strength POFA lower than normal concrete. On the other
hand, the replacement of cement by 10% POFA shows a record high in compressive strength
compared with other POFA mixing at the age of 7 days and 28 days. Fineness pozzolanic POFA is the
best material and can be used as a cement replacement alternative.

Introduction

Malaysia as the world's largest exporter of palm oil has been facing problems in disposing
palm oil fuel ash, a byproduct of palm oil mill since many years ago. There are about 3 million tons of
POFA was produced in Malaysia in 2007 and 100,000 tons of POFA is produced annually in
Thailand, and this production rate is likely to increase due to the increased plantation of palm oil trees
[1]. Through public concerns and research efforts, the agro waste by product materials have the
potential to be utilized as construction material to replace conventional ordinary Portland cement
(OPC). In this study, the effectiveness of agro waste ash byproduct namely palm oil fuel ash (POFA)
was developed as an alternative materials to replace the OPC. POFA cement-based concrete is a
concrete produced by integrating POFA as a pozzolan in concrete.
According to ASTM C 618 [2] pozzolanic materials can be described as materials containing
siliceous and aluminous material by composition. A pozzolanic material contains natural pozzolanic
usually being used as a cement replacement in concrete mix design. There a lot of pozzolanic
materials such as Pulverized Fuel Ash (PFA), Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA), Ground Granulated Blast
Furnace Slag (GGBS), Silica Fume, Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and so on that can act as cement
replacement material [3].
With the research and development of civil engineering, it is found that the freshly mixed and
hardened properties of concrete may be changed by adding chemical admixtures or adding pozzolanic
admixtures contain liquid and powder form. The excessive production of industrial by-products each
year by chemical and agricultural process industries has caused pollution to the environment and also
increase the cost to dispose this [4]. Countries like a French, German, Italian, Japanese, Netherlands
and Russia have long been engaged in the production and use of blended cement. The United States
and Canada are more focused on the reuse of waste industry as a mineral admixture in concrete [5].
Nowadays, the use of recycled materials as concrete ingredients is gaining popularity and
development due to increasingly stringent environmental legislation Furthermore, from the previous
study and research on many different materials as cement and aggregate replacement such as palm oil
fuel ash (POFA), pulverize fuel ash (PFA)and many other fiber and pozzolanic material shows the
best results and it can be used in small amount as cement replacement [6]. Since Malaysia is the
second largest producer in palm oil industry, the wastage of the palm oil can be used to replace in
small amount of cement. But they are limited to certain corners of the construction industry. The
related objectives of the present research are to study the effect of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) towards
physical properties of concrete, to compare the strength of the normal concrete and palm oil fuel ash
(POFA) substitution and to study the effectiveness of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and discovered its
potential as a partial replacement mixes in concrete. Palm oil fuel ash produced from combustion of
oil palm fiber and shell as fuel in the power plant boiler. In general, there are about 5% by weight of
palm oil fuel ash that will be produced as a waste [7].

Materials and Methods

Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) supplied by Cement Industries of Malaysia, Berhad was used
as the main binder material. POFA had been taken at palm oil mills United Palm Oil Industries Sdn.
Bhd. located at Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang. POFA as mentioned earlier is a waste product obtained
in the form of ash on burning palm oil husk or fibre and palm kernel shell as fuel in palm oil mill
boilers. The mix proportion for POFA is 10%, 30% and 50%. Test on fresh concrete such as slump
test to measure the workability of the concrete according to BS 1881 : Part 102 : 1983 [8]. The 150
mm size concrete cubes and concrete beams of size 100 mm x 100 mm x 500 mm size was used as test
specimens to determine the compressive strength and flexural strength respectively. After casting, all
the test specimens were finished with a steel trowel. All the test specimens were stored in curing tank
and are demoulded after 24 hours for water-curing according to BS 1881 : Part 112 : 1987 [9]. When
the test age is reached, they are tested for compressive strength and flexural strength. The concrete
properties such as compressive strength and flexural strength test were performed in accordance with
the provisions of the BS 1881: Part 108: 1983 [10] and BS 1881 : Part 118 : 1983 [11]. Compressive
Strength Test This test will provide the breaking strength of the cube which is made particularly for
the purpose of testing the compressed concrete compression strength. Flexure Strength Test Modulus
of rupture of concrete is determined by the Flexural Strength Test using a simple beam.
Results and Discussions

1. Compressive Strength Test

The compressive strength test result of palm oil fuel ash concrete as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1.
For OPC concrete (P0), compressive strength data obtained on day 7 is 39.15 N/mm2 and on the 28th
day is 48.38 N/mm2. This shows the concrete OPC reaches a predetermined level of the standard for
concrete POFA 10 % (P10), the compressive strength at day 7 is 32.26 N/mm2 and 28 days was 47.73
N/mm2. This shows the compressive strength POFA (P10) is higher than the OPC concrete as a
concrete control in this study. Compressive strength obtained at day 7 and day 28 of the concrete
POFA 30% (P30) is 31.33 N/mm2 and 37.07 N/mm2. P30 compressive strength is less than P0, but the
value of the compressive strength is still above the standards. The difference in value of the concrete
compressive strength POFA 50 % (P50) with OPC concrete is very significant to the value of 14.82
N/mm2 at day 7 and 20.64 N/mm2 on the 28th day. P50 value is the lowest in this study. Moreover, the
values obtained are failing because of not passing the prescribed standards for concrete grade 30.

Table 1 : Compressive Strength Test Results

Compressive Strength (N/mm2)

% POFA
7 Days 28 Days
0% POFA (P0) 39.147 48.379
10% POFA (P10) 32.258 47.732
30% POFA (P30) 31.328 37.065
50% POFA (P50) 14.819 20.644

Figure 1 : Compressive Strength Versus Age of Concrete

2. Flexural Strength Test

The flexural strength test results of palm oil fuel ash concrete are given in Table 2 and shown in
Figure 2 respectively. From the results it is well understood that P10 mix achieved the highest flexural
strength for day 7 and day 28. It is seen that 7 day and 28 day flexural strength of 10% replacement of
cement with POFA is more than to that of the control mix. When the replacement proportion is
increased to 30%, the flexural strength also decreases. At P50 also decrease at 7 day and 28 day.
Further increase in proportion of POFA causes a reduction in flexural strength.

Table 2 : Flexural Strength Test Results

Flexural Strength (N/mm2)

% POFA
7 Days 28 Days
0% POFA (P0) 4.123 6.043
10% POFA (P10) 4.035 5.988
30% POFA (P30) 3.342 3.953
50% POFA (P50) 1.712 2.107

Figure 2 : Flexural Strength Versus Age of Concrete

 Conclusions

Compressive strength obtained from POFA is more and less on a percentage of the compressive
strength of control, but still able to bear the load and can be used more effectively if the selected mix
ratio is appropriate. Flexural strength obtained from POFA is more and less on a percentage of the
compressive strength of control, but still able to bear the load and can be used more effectively if the
selected mix ratio is appropriate. The relative density of the concrete POFA was lower than the
control concrete. This indicates that the heavy POFA is lighter than the weight of cement at a rate
equal volume. POFA workability of concrete is lower than the control concrete. This indicates that
POFA is absorbing more water because it has a large quantity of cement at a rate over the same
weight. Based on this point, mixing ratio for concrete POFA need plenty of water. But in terms of the
structural strength, it still needs to be studied. Overall, the concrete with 10% replacement POFA to
have high strength and has the characteristics of good concrete.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge the support from Department of Civil Engineering Technology,
Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis.

References
[1] Ranjbar, N., Mehrali, M., Behnia, A., Alengaram, U. J. & Jumaat, M. Z. 2014. Compressive
strength and microstructural analysis of fly ash/palm oil fuel ash based geopolymer mortar.
Materials & Design, 59, 532-539.
[2] ASTM, C. 618-94a. Standard specification for coal fly ash and Raw or calcined natural
pozzolan for use as a mineral admixture in portland cement concret.
[3] Farandia, R. Y. 2014. Kinerja Beton High Volume Pofa. Jurnal Online Mahasiswa (JOM)
Bidang Teknik dan Sains, 1, 1-12.
[4] Sooraj, V. 2013. Effect of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) on strength properties of concrete.
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3, 1-7.
[5] Ishida, T. Creep and Shrinkage of Concrete Containing POFA. Master thesis. Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia (1999).
[6] Mohammed Owaid, H., Hamid, R. B. & Taha, M. R. 2012. A Review of Sustainable
Supplementary Cementitious Materials as an Alternative to All-Portland Cement Mortar and
Concrete. Australian Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences, 6.
[7] Sata, V., Jaturapitakkul, C. & Kiattikomol, K. 2004. Utilization of palm oil fuel ash in
high-strength concrete. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 16, 623-628.
[8] British Standard 1881 : Part 102 : 1983, Method for determination of slump test
[9] British Standard 1881 : Part 112 : 1987, Method for curing.
[10] British Standard 1881: Part 108: 1983, Method for determination for compressive strength.
[11] British Standrd 1881 : Part 118 : 1983 Method for determination for flexural strength.

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