Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Review

Viability of agricultural wastes as substitute of natural aggregate in

concrete: A review on the durability-related properties
Kim Hung Mo a, *, Blessen Skariah Thomas b, Soon Poh Yap a, Fuad Abutaha c,
Chee Ghuan Tan a
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b
State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240,
PR China
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Antalya Bilim University, 07190, Antalya, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Increase in construction activities has led to rapid depletion of natural resources, particularly aggregates
Received 8 April 2020 which are utilized in the production of concrete. At the same time, there are huge amount of solid wastes
Received in revised form originating from the agricultural industry, particularly from the South East Asia region, such as oil palm
31 May 2020
shell (OPS), oil palm boiler clinker (OPBC) and coconut shell. Research have since been undertaken to
Accepted 24 June 2020
Available online 16 July 2020
investigate the feasibility of these waste materials as potential substitute for conventional aggregate in
concrete. Durability of concretes, especially those containing recycled waste materials are often sub-
Handling Editor: Prof. Jiri Jaromir Klemes jected to scrutiny. Therefore, this paper reviews the published findings on the durability-related prop-
erties of concrete containing these agricultural waste materials as aggregate. Due to improved binder
Keywords: quality (lower w/b ratio and higher binder content), concrete prepared with these wastes generally
Agricultural waste exhibit acceptable quality in terms of water absorption, sorptivity and chloride penetrability. The major
Waste recycling drawbacks are associated with the higher drying shrinkage, susceptibility towards severe chemical attack
Durability and elevated temperature. Among these wastes, OPBC aggregate is considered to have the best perfor-
Concrete material
mance based on the reviewed properties, while OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate are recom-
Sustainability
mended to be used only as partial aggregate replacement. Current available studies, however, are still
insufficient and more in-depth investigations are required to ascertain the suitability of these wastes to
be re-used as aggregate replacement in concrete.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Water absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Sorptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Shrinkage behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Chloride penetration/corrosion resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Sulphate resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7. Acid resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8. High temperature resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
10. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Declaration of competing interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: khmo@um.edu.my (K.H. Mo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123062
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062
1. Introduction
With an increasing demand for sustainability in the construc-
tion industry, development of concrete using recycled waste ma-
terials is attracting wide interest (Thomas et al., 2017; Thomas,
2018). One of the most exploited natural resources for concrete
production is aggregate, as the aggregate constitutes to about
70e80% of the total concrete volume. It is estimated that about 48
billion metric tons of aggregates are consumed in the construction
industry around the world (Mohammed and Najim, 2020). Re-using
discarded or waste materials as aggregate substitute is a promising
solution, as waste reduction can be achieved, while the usage of
conventional aggregates can be limited at the same time. More
commonly, utilization of wastes such as construction and demoli-
tion waste (recycled concrete aggregate and recycled brick), steel
slag and glass waste has been explored in depth (Guo et al., 2018;
Jiang et al., 2018; Xiao et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2020). These materials
can normally be used; however, certain hardened properties of the
resulting concrete must be properly accounted for, particularly
durability-related properties. For instance, the use of recycled
aggregate typically results in larger drying shrinkage, whereas steel
slag could cause expansion issues to the concrete while glass waste
could induce alkali-silica reaction.
In the last decade, there are increasing efforts to explore the
possibility of using waste materials originating from the agriculture
industry as aggregate substitute in concrete or cement-based ma-
terials. Commonly, the investigated waste materials originate from
the palm oil and coconut plantation industries, such as oil palm
shell (OPS), oil palm boiler clinker (OPBC), and coconut shell. OPS is
a solid waste from the palm oil extraction process, and this waste is
typically available in tropical countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
In Malaysia, the estimated output of OPS is approximately 4 million
tonnes a year (Thomas et al., 2017; Teo et al., 2010). Usually, the OPS
will be discarded on site and this will cause wastage of land space
as well as environmental risks such as accidental fires. Original OPS
has high flakiness index but it may be crushed to obtain better
quality OPS aggregate (Shafigh et al., 2014b). OPBC is an aggregate
extracted from boiler of palm oil mills, which functions to generate
electricity for the mills (Aslam et al., 2016b). In the boiler, OPS and
oil palm fibre are burnt at 850  C with the proportion of 30:70. After
burning, porous lumped OPBC will be formed and normally treated
as waste with no economic value (Shafigh et al., 2014c). OPBC is
commonly available in large boulders, ranging from 10 to 30 cm in
size, which are then mechanically crushed to the desired sizes as
use for coarse aggregate. Coconut shell is a major solid waste from
the coconut industry upon extraction of coconut oil. This industry is
more common in India and South East Asia countries. The annual
production of the coconut shell waste was estimated to be around
3.18 million tonnes in India and this amount of waste presents a
serious pollution problem (Gunasekaran et al., 2012).
When they are discarded, these materials are available in sizes
that are more suitable to be used as aggregate and in most cases as
coarse aggregate (Fig. 1). The physical properties of these materials
are tabulated in Table 1. There are researches that have elucidated
the impact of these materials towards the fresh and mechanical
properties of the concrete. In most studies, it was concluded that
the concrete with appreciable strength, and in some cases, struc-
tural grade concrete can be produced when using these waste
materials as either partial or full aggregate replacement. Never-
theless, the common concern with regards to the suitability of
alternative materials used as aggregate is the long-term durability
of the produced concrete. This is particularly critical for concrete
used for structural applications. Despite this, the overall durability-
related properties of concrete prepared with agricultural waste
aggregates are not well documented and discussed at large.
Therefore, this paper will attempt to summarize and review the
available literature on the durability-related properties (perme-
ation properties, shrinkage, chloride penetrability, chemical resis-
tance and high temperature resistance) of concrete using
agricultural waste as aggregate. With the body of knowledge on
durability-related properties of concrete containing these agricul-
tural wastes, continuous efforts can subsequently be made to
improve the concrete mixture from the durability perspective
instead of based on only the mechanical strength. Besides that, the
knowledge of certain durability limitations of such concrete could
help researchers to identify more specific application-based
research where the intended usage is not restricted by these
durability concerns.
2. Water absorption
Water absorption is commonly adopted and used by researchers
to indicate the quality of concrete with regards to voids and
possible permeability of water. The water absorption of concrete
prepared with agricultural waste as coarse aggregate replacement
is given in Table 2. In general, the inclusion of OPS as coarse
aggregate replacement caused the increase in water absorption of
concrete, primarily due to high water absorption capacity of OPS
aggregates. Shafigh et al. (2012) reported that the water absorption
of the concrete (w/b ratio: 0.38 and 0.40) was increased as the
amount of OPS used to replace granite was increased from 25% to
100%. The 24-h and 72-h water absorption of concrete containing
100% OPS was about 11.0% and 14.0%, respectively. In another
investigation conducted by Teo et al. (2010), the water absorption of
OPS aggregate concrete prepared with w/b ratio of 0.38 was re-
ported to be similar at 10.6%. The obtained water absorption value
of 6.1% for concrete prepared with 30% OPS aggregate at w/b ratio of
0.50 also seems to correspond well accordingly (Fanijo et al., 2020).
In the subsequent researches, various methods were explored to
improve the quality of OPS aggregate concrete. Compared to the
earlier research, Mo et al. (2016) reported that the water absorption
tested at 30-min (initial) and 72-h water (final) for a 28-day OPS
aggregate concrete prepared with lower w/b ratio of 0.33 was
decreased to 3.4% and 7.8%, respectively. Original shaped OPS was
also crushed to reduce flakiness and porosity of the aggregate while
the w/b ratio was also lowered to 0.34e0.36 with the aid of
superplasticizer. This resulted in the reduction of 30-min and 72-h
water absorption of OPS aggregate concrete to below 3% (Aslam
et al., 2016b, 2017) and in the range of 3.1%e7.1% (Shafigh et al.,
2011; Aslam et al., 2017), respectively. Yew et al. (2018a) pro-
posed a heat treatment method (60  C for 30 min in oven) to
improve the quality of OPS aggregate. As a result, a reduction of
about 13% of the water absorption could be achieved, which was
due to the low equilibrium moisture content in the OPS. Similarly,
Yew et al. (2014) also compared the properties of OPS aggregate
concrete made with different species of OPS, namely dura and
tenera. The dura species OPS typically has shell thickness greater
than that of the tenera species. After the water absorption test for
72 h, the water absorption ranged at 3.0e4.3% and 5.0e6.3% for the
tenera and dura species, respectively. The lower absorption of
concrete made with the tenera species is related to its texture (Yew
et al., 2018b).
When ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) was used at
up to 40% for cement replacement, the water absorption value of
OPS aggregate concrete could be decreased. This was because the
GGBS could densify the pores and improve the interfacial zone of
the concrete. However, water absorption of OPS aggregate concrete
was negatively affected at high GGBS content, as reported by Mo
et al. (2015), when 70% GGBS was adopted as cement replacement.
In contrast, when fly ash was used as 10%e70% replacing cement,
 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062 3

Fig. 1. Agriculture wastes as coarse aggregate in concrete - (a) OPS (b) OPBC (c) coconut shell (Mo et al., 2014a).

Table 1
Summary of physical properties of agricultural wastes as coarse aggregate.

Coarse aggregate OPS (Shafigh et al., OPBC (Aslam et al., 2016a, 2016b; Chai Coconut shell (Shafigh et al., 2014b; Sathiparan and De Zoysa, 2018;
2014b) et al., 2019) Regin et al., 2017)

Specific gravity 1.17e1.37 1.7e2.2 1.05e1.41

Loose bulk density (kg/m3) 510e550 568e1120 e
Compacted bulk density 590e600 800e1080 650
(kg/m3)
24-h water absorption (%) 21e33 2e7 17.8e24
Aggregate impact value (%) 4e8 26.0e36.9 7.8e8.2
Aggregate crushing value 5e10 18.0e21.2 2.3e2.6
(%)
Los Angeles abrasion value 3e5 23.9e27.1 1.9
(%)

the water absorption was increased for the OPS aggregate concrete
at the age of 28 days (Shafigh et al., 2013, 2016). Similarly, in the
case of palm oil fuel ash (POFA), the water absorption was found to
increase when the cement replacement level has exceeded 10%.
This occurrence may be attributed to the water absorption of the
POFA particle itself (Islam et al., 2016). The different effectiveness of
GGBS on the water absorption of OPS aggregate concrete, when
compared to the fly ash and POFA could likely be due to the reac-
tivity of the materials, as the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash and POFA
may only be more noticeable at later ages.
In overall, researchers concurred that based on the water ab-
sorption value, the concrete prepared using OPS coarse aggregate
(kept at w/b ratio below 0.38) can be classified as good quality
concrete (water absorption< 10%). Researches also suggest that
proper curing is necessary to ensure the water absorption was kept
at a minimum, and typically OPS aggregate concrete subjected to
full water curing had lower water absorption compared to air
curing (Mo et al., 2015b, 2016).
Abutaha et al. (2017) reported that the presence of OPBC
increased the 28-day water absorption of concrete and the greater
amount of OPBC aggregate resulted in higher water absorption. The
increase in the water absorption was in the range of 35%e80% when
OPBC was used to replace coarse aggregate by 20%e100%. In the
concrete (w/b ratio: 0.53) with only OPBC as coarse aggregate, the
water absorption was about 7.0%. Ahmmad et al. (2017) carried out
water absorption test on OPBC aggregate concrete with similar w/b
ratio for 24 and 72 h, observing water absorption value of about
5.7% and 6.2%, respectively. Chai et al. (2019) reported that the
initial water absorption of OPBC can be reduced to below 3% when
the w/b ratio was lowered to between 0.31 and 0.42. Furthermore,
full water curing could lower the water absorption of OPBC
aggregate concrete compared to air curing (Muthusamy et al.,
2019).
When supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) such as
palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and OPBC powder were used at optimum
levels in OPBC aggregate concrete, the water absorption could be
reduced. The use of 10% POFA as cement replacement was reported
to provide pozzolanic reaction which resulted in pore refinement
effect (Muthusamy et al., 2019) while the use of up to 30% POFA can
reduce the water absorption of the OPBC aggregate concrete when
used in nano-size (Hamada et al., 2019). Similarly, Ahmmad et al.
(2017) adopted OPBC powder as partial cement replacement up
to 15% and reported a decrease in water absorption of OPBC
aggregate concrete. Whereas, Abutaha et al. (2017) adopted OPBC
powder as filler to provide effective particle packing, densifying
OPBC aggregate concrete and thus lowered the water absorption by
up to 32%.
Compared to OPS, OPBC aggregate has relatively lower water
absorption and hence is less porous. The water absorption of OPS is
in the range of 21e33% whereas the water absorption of OPBC is
around 2e7% (Table 1). Hence, when OPBC was used to partially
replace OPS as coarse aggregate by up to 50%, the 30-min, 24-h and
72-h water absorption of the OPS aggregate concrete can be
reduced from 2.6%, 6.3% and 7.1%e1.8%, 5.3% and 6.5%, respectively
(Aslam et al., 2016b).
Similarly, Kabir et al. (2017) examined the influence of the
mixture of OPS and OPBC as coarse aggregate in geopolymer con-
crete. The 30-min and 72-h water absorption varied between 4.36-
6.47% and 7.10e10.84%, respectively. As expected, the OPBC per-
formed better with lower water absorption when used individually,
while highest water absorption was recorded when OPS was used
individually as coarse aggregate in the geopolymer concrete. In
addition, it was mentioned that the larger-sized OPBC aggregate
(9e14 mm) resulted in higher water absorption of concrete
compared to that of smaller size aggregate (5e9 mm) (Kabir et al.,
2017).
4 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062

Table 2
Water absorption of cement concrete prepared using agricultural wastes as full coarse aggregate without SCMs.

Type of waste 28-day compressive strength Cement content (kg/ w/b 30-min water 72-h water absorption Remarks
(MPa) m3) ratio absorption (%) (%)

OPS
Shafigh et al. (2011) 46.15 550 0.425 e 5.8
47.22 480 0.38 e 3.1
46.35 520 0.34 e 3.5
Shafigh et al. (2014c) 37.80 500 0.38 e 4.3
Yew et al. (2014) 45.85 e e e 5.3 Dura species (uncrushed)
44.60 e e e 3.5 Tenera species (uncrushed)
51.60 e e e 6.0 Dura species (crushed)
42.35 e e e 4.1 Tenera species (crushed)
Mo et al. (2016) 45.1 550 0.33 3.4 7.8 28-day
46.0 550 0.33 3.1 7.3 90-day
Islam et al. (2016) 40 565 0.30 2.2 4.8 28-day
41.1 565 0.30 1.7 3.8 28-day
34.8 565 0.40 3.9 8.3 90-day
36.0 565 0.40 3.1 5.6 90-day
Aslam et al. (2016b) 36.0 480 0.36 2.6 7.1 56-day
Yew et al. (2018b) 44.1 505 0.29 e 5.2 Tenera species (no heat
treatment)
46.7 505 0.29 e 6.0 Dura species (no heat treatment)
45.2 505 0.29 e 3.1 Tenera species (65  C heat
treatment)
50.6 505 0.29 e 3.7 Dura species (65  C heat
treatment)
44.0 505 0.29 e 4.3 Tenera species (130  C heat
treatment)
47.8 505 0.29 e 5.1 Dura species (130  C heat
treatment)

OPBC
Ahmmad et al. (2017) 44.2 420 0.45 e 6.2
Chai et al. (2019) 52.1 500 0.315 2.1 e
Muthusamy et al. 60.0 576 0.45 0.8 e Air curing
(2019) 60.0 576 0.45 0.3 e Water curing

Coconut shell
Gunasekaran et al. 26.7 510 0.42 e 11.0 28-day
(2015) 26.7 510 0.42 e 8.9 90-day
Chandar et al. (2018) 26.7 510 0.42 e 8.7 365-day
Prakash et al. (2020) 30.5 510 0.33 e 10.7

Kanadasan et al. (2018) found that when OPBC was used as fine
aggregate in cement mortar at 0%e100% replacement levels, the
water absorption was increased from 5.9% to 8.3%. The main reason
for this was the porosity of the OPBC fine aggregate as well as the
poor packing when using the OPBC fine aggregate, which enabled
water to flow into the voids in the mortar. Shafigh et al. (2014c)
investigated the influence of OPBC as fine aggregate replacement
in OPS lightweight concrete. In the OPS lightweight concrete
without OPBC, the 24-h water absorption was about 4%, while the
use of OPBC as partial fine aggregate replacement (up to 50%
replacement) resulted in increase of the water absorption to almost
10%. This increase was attributed to the higher water absorption of
OPBC fine aggregate compared to normal sand, and this affected the
amount of pore area in the interfacial zone. On the basis of
achieving good quality of concrete with water absorption below
10%, Shafigh et al. (2014c) suggested that OPS aggregate concrete
can incorporate a maximum of 37.5% OPBC as fine aggregate
replacement. Besides that, even with combined coarse and fine
aggregate replacement using OPBC, despite the increased water
absorption, water absorption of 3.2% could be achieved in
geopolymer-based concrete containing 100% OPBC aggregates
(Malkawi et al., 2020).
Gunasekaran et al. (2015) reported that concrete prepared with
coconut shell aggregate (w/b ratio: 0.42) had water absorption of
10.66e11%. Proper curing can reduce the water absorption, as
demonstrated by the lower water absorption recorded when the
concrete was subjected to full water curing compared to air curing.
Later aged coconut shell aggregate concrete (>56 days) produced
using the same mix design was found to exhibit water absorption of
around 8.50% (Chandar et al., 2018). Nadir and Sujatha (2018) re-
ported that the initial water absorption of concrete containing
18.5% coconut shell as coarse aggregate replacement (w/b ratio:
0.46) as 4.20% and the inclusion of SCMs such as fly ash or GGBS
could reduce the water absorption. This was also reciprocated by
Prakash et al. (2020) who found that the use of fly ash at up to 30%
cement replacement level could reduce the 28-day water absorp-
tion of coconut shell aggregate concrete (w/b ratio: 0.33) from
10.7% to 5.7%. Furthermore, the use of higher quality binder such as
in self-compacting concrete (w/b ratio: 0.33e0.37) could result in
water absorption as low as 3.0% after 28 days for coconut shell
aggregate concrete (Palanisamy et al., 2020).
In the case of porosity or volume of permeable voids, Teo et al.
(2010) recorded volume of permeable voids of about 17e21% at
90 days for OPS aggregate concrete with w/b ratio of 0.38. When
the w/b ratio was lowered to 0.30e0.33, the OPS aggregate concrete
was found to have porosity in the range of 14.0e17.0% and
14.0e16.0% at the age of 28 and 90 days, respectively (Mo et al.,
2014b; Yew et al., 2018a). Yew et al. (2018a) found that appro-
priate heat treatment at 65  C of the OPS aggregate can help to
reduce the porosity of concrete. Whereas Liu et al. (2014) obtained
permeable voids of about 25% for OPS aggregate concrete made
using geopolymer binder. For the concrete prepared with coconut
 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062
shell aggregate, Prakash et al. (2020) (w/b ratio: 0.33) and Chandar
et al. (2018) (w/b ratio: 0.42) reported similar values in the range of
about 17e22% for the concrete at 28e365 days. However, Prakash
et al. (2020) noted that the inclusion of fly ash at 10e30% cement
replacement level could reduce the volume of permeable voids to
below 16% after 28 days.
3. Sorptivity
Water sorptivity is a property related to the pore structure of
concrete near the surface. It describes the rate of water penetration
due to capillary action and this can be related to the initiation of
corrosion; a concrete with lower sorptivity indicates better quality
(Ho and Chirgwin, 1996). Generally, OPS aggregate concrete was
found to exhibit sorptivity in the range of 0.05e0.15 mm/min0.5
(Mo et al., 2016, 2017b; Liu et al., 2014; Teo et al., 2010), depending
on the mix design, curing method and concrete age. Longer term
curing such as exceeding 56 days could reduce the sorptivity of the
concrete to below 0.10 mm/min0.5 (Teo et al., 2010). It was revealed
that although OPS was more porous, the lower w/b ratio adopted in
the mix design of OPS aggregate concrete (w/b ratio typi-
cally < 0.40) played a role in influencing the sorptivity positively.
Mo et al. (2015a) compared OPS aggregate concrete (w/b ratio:
0.33) and normal weight concrete (w/b ratio: 0.63) of similar
compressive strength and observed lower sorptivity value for the
former. Similarly, concrete prepared with coconut shell aggregate
at low w/b ratio of 0.42 gave 28-day sorptivity in the range of
0.095e0.104 mm/min0.5 when subjected to full water curing
(Gunasekaran et al., 2015). Nevertheless, at later ages the sorptivity
could be reduced to below 0.10 mm/min0.5. In coconut shell
aggregate concrete prepared with lower w/b ratio of 0.33, the
sorptivity was generally below 0.10 mm/min0.5 after 28 days
(Prakash et al., 2020). It was suggested that the possible internal
curing effect of the porous coconut shell aggregate enhanced the
interfacial zone and hence reduce the sorptivity of concrete
(Gunasekaran et al., 2015). These could be the reasons that the
sorptivity of concrete using the less-porous OPBC aggregate had a
higher range of sorptivity, since OPBC aggregate concretes typically
had comparatively higher w/b ratio (for a given compressive
strength) and the OPBC aggregate may exhibit lesser extent of in-
ternal curing.
Ahmmad et al. (2017) reported 28-day sorptivity value of
0.150e0.160 mm/min0.5 for OPBC aggregate concrete while the use
of the OPBC powder up to 15% as cement replacement could reduce
the sorptivity to about 0.122e0.132 mm/min0.5. Ong et al. (2018)
commented that when OPBC was used at 30% and 50% fine
aggregate replacement, the concrete experienced increased sorp-
tivity index from 0.134 mm/min0.5 (control concrete) to 0.157 and
0.183 mm/min0.5, respectively. This was mainly attributed to the
porous nature of the OPBC aggregate compared to normal sand. On
the other hand, Kabir et al. (2017) observed higher range of sorp-
tivity between 0.167 and 0.218 mm/min0.5 for geopolymer concrete
containing mixed OPS and OPBC aggregates.
The use of SCM such as GGBS was found to be beneficial in
reducing sorptivity of OPS aggregate concrete, attributed to the
blockage of capillarity and discontinuity of the capillary porosity
associated with the pore refinement effect of GGBS (Mo et al., 2016).
This however cannot be said for the case of POFA, where Islam et al.
(2016) observed the opposite trend, possibly due to the more
porous concrete produced when high amount of POFA was incor-
porated. There were also studies whereby fibres were incorporated
in OPS aggregate concrete. Addition of steel fibres were found to
increase the water absorption; up to 1.0% steel fibres was found to
increase the sorptivity by 15% (Mo et al., 2017b). In contrast, addi-
tion of micro-fibres such as polypropylene fibre by 0.25%e1.0%
5
could reduce the rate of absorption (measured by initial surface
absorption) due to the pore blocking effect of the fibres (Yew et al.,
2018a). Nevertheless, increasing the content of the polypropylene
fibres could also cause air entrapment.
Researchers also found that the initial surface absorption test
results (10-min, 30-min, 60-min and 120-min) for OPS aggregate
concrete were in the range of 0.72e21.97 ml/m2/m,s (Mannan and
Ganapathy, 2002; Teo et al., 2010). Azunna et al. (2019) reported the
range of 0.27e0.84 ml/m2s (10-min, 30-min and 60-min) for con-
crete containing 10e30% coconut shell as fine aggregate
replacement.
4. Shrinkage behaviour
Shrinkage of concrete is a time-dependent property which
could affect concrete at later ages. When the shrinkage is excessive,
cracking could occur under restrained conditions, possible leading
to deleterious cracks and affect the service life of concrete struc-
tures. Typically, the drying shrinkage of OPS aggregate concrete
designed with lower w/b ratio (<0.4) was found to be in the range
of 600e900 micro-strains (Yew et al., 2018a; Maghfouri et al., 2020;
Mo et al., 2015c, 2016; Shafigh et al., 2013, 2016; Farahani et al.,
2017), depending on the duration of shrinkage, mix design and
test methods. At higher w/b ratios (>0.4), the drying shrinkage
could be higher at around 1300e2000 micro-strains (Traore et al.,
2018). Comparison with both normal weight concrete and light-
weight expanded clay aggregate concrete has shown that the dry-
ing shrinkage of OPS aggregate concrete is typically greater (Mo
et al., 2015c; Shafigh et al., 2014a). The drying shrinkage of OPS
aggregate concrete was about 2.5 times higher than normal weight
concrete of similar compressive strength (Mo et al., 2015c) and
about 35% more than expanded clay aggregate concrete (Shafigh
et al., 2014a) (Fig. 2). These observations were attributed to the
lower elastic modulus of OPS aggregate, as well as the higher de-
gree of hydration associated with the use of superplasticizer and
higher water content in the OPS aggregate concrete mix (Mo et al.,
2015c; Shafigh et al., 2014a). Nevertheless, Aslam et al. (2018)
concluded that the drying shrinkage of OPS aggregate concrete
can be predicted most accurately using models from AS3600 and
JSCE.
Mo et al. (2016) reported that the use of SCM such as GGBS up to
40% cement replacement level was useful in reducing shrinkage of
OPS aggregate concrete due to pore refinement effect. However,
there were also instances where SCM such as rice husk ash
(Farahani et al., 2017) was not observed to reduce the drying
shrinkage, particularly when used at higher cement replacement
levels which require mixes to be re-designed using a higher w/b
ratio. Whereas Islam et al. (2016) reported that when a more porous
Fig. 2. Comparison of drying shrinkage between OPS aggregate concrete (Mix P) with
expanded clay aggregate concrete (Mix L) (Shafigh et al., 2014a).
6 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062
SCM such as POFA was utilized as cement replacement, especially in
OPS aggregate concrete mix at low w/b ratio, the 60-days shrinkage
was greater than the concrete without POFA. This was reasoned to
the greater pores content in the OPS aggregate concrete containing
POFA. It is also likely that due to lower pozzolanic reactivity of the
POFA, there were still unreacted POFA particles which caused the
presence of more voids. This seems to be corroborated in the
research by Shafigh et al. (2016) where it was noted that although
OPS aggregate concrete prepared with 50% fly ash experienced
higher drying shrinkage at early stages, the drying shrinkage after
one year was almost similar as the concrete without fly ash.
Besides that, the use of fibres was found to have positive effects
to reduce drying shrinkage. Mo et al. (2017b) reported that use of
up to 1.0% steel fibres could reduce shrinkage by about 20% whereas
low dosage of polymeric fibres (0.1%) could bring upon slight
decrease (about 10%) in the drying shrinkage of OPS aggregate
concrete (Mo et al., 2015b). The fibres were thought to be able to
provide restraining effect towards the shrinkage movement of
cement paste. However, at higher replacement level of polymeric
fibres (>0.2%), the drying shrinkage of OPS aggregate concrete was
increased (Mo et al., 2015b; Yew et al., 2018a).
Traore et al. (2018) found that saturating the OPS aggregate with
water as well as coating the aggregate with polyvinyl alcohol so-
lution were beneficial in reducing the drying shrinkage of the
concrete. Yew et al. (2018a), however, found that the drying
shrinkage of concrete containing OPS aggregate which was heat-
treated increased by about 20% compared to concrete with un-
treated OPS aggregate.
Aslam et al. (2017) experimented the use of OPBC aggregate to
partially substitute OPS aggregate in concrete. The drying shrinkage
can be reduced with the inclusion of OPBC aggregate due to the
higher elastic modulus of the former as well as the rougher surface
texture compared to OPS aggregate (Aslam et al., 2017). Therefore,
as the replacement level of OPS aggregate by OPBC was increased,
reduction in drying shrinkage can be observed. With replacement
of up to 50%, the drying shrinkage of the concrete can be decreased
by about 15% to around 400e500 micro-strains at 234 days,
depending on the initial curing conditions and w/b ratio adopted in
the mix design (Aslam et al., 2016a). When OPBC was used fully as
coarse aggregate, the drying shrinkage of the concrete after 20
months was about 390 micro-strains and similar as that observed
for normal concrete. However, with the same mix design, concrete
prepared with the OPBC was found to exhibit lower drying
shrinkage than expanded clay aggregate and this was associated
Fig. 3. Drying shrinkage of concrete prepared with normal weight aggregate (GC),
OPBC aggregate (CC), expanded clay aggregate (LC) (Shafigh et al., 2018).
with the better mechanical strength of the former (Shafigh et al.,
2018) (Fig. 3). Abutaha et al. (2017) reported that the concrete
designed with higher replacement of OPBC aggregate with added
OPBC powder filler had slight reduction in drying shrinkage after
180 days. This was ascribed to the reduction in pores and decrease
in the water-to-powder ratio. In terms of the influence of OPBC
aggregate size, Ahmad et al. (2008) found that the smaller size
OPBC coarse aggregate (10 mm maximum size) contributed to
higher drying shrinkage of OPBC aggregate concrete. Nevertheless,
when OPBC was utilized as fine aggregate replacement in concrete,
it was found that the drying shrinkage was similar as the control
concrete (Ong et al., 2018; Shafigh et al., 2014c) and this could be
due to the internal curing effect of the aggregate. Kanadasan et al.
(2018) observed that drying shrinkage in self-compacting mortar
can be maintained when the OPBC fine aggregate was limited to
25% replacement, although further increase in the replacement
level would result in increased shrinkage.
In terms of plastic shrinkage, Gunasekaran et al. (2013) sug-
gested that coconut shell aggregate has beneficial effect in reducing
the plastic shrinkage of concrete, as observed by the reduced
number of cracks and crack area compared to normal concrete.
5. Chloride penetration/corrosion resistance
Most studies evaluated the chloride penetration of concrete by
the rapid chloride penetration test (RCPT). It is essential to ensure
that the chloride penetration of concrete is minimized to prevent
corrosion of steel reinforcement to ensure durability of structural
reinforced concrete. The summarized RCPT results of concrete
prepared with OPS, coconut shell and OPBC as full coarse aggregate
replacement in concrete are given in Table 3. Earlier research with
OPS aggregate concrete prepared with w/b ratio of 0.38 revealed
that the amount of charge passed in the RCPT was about
3500e4500 C, which can be classified as ‘moderate’ to ‘high’
chloride penetrability (Teo et al., 2010). However, when proper
water curing was provided and curing age was extended, the
amount of charge passed from RCPT was in the lower range (Teo
et al., 2010). Furthermore, when OPS aggregate concrete mix was
designed with lower w/b ratio of 0.30, the amount of charged
passed in the RCPT could be lowered to around 3300 C at the
concrete age of 90 days (Islam et al., 2016). However, at the low w/b
ratio, inclusion of SCM such as POFA was not able to reduce the
chloride penetration due to the limited pozzolanic reactivity (Islam
et al., 2016). When the OPS aggregate was heat-treated, the amount
of charge passed in RCPT on OPS aggregate concrete at 28 days
could be further decreased to below 2000 C, indicating ‘low’ chlo-
ride penetrability (Yew et al., 2018a). In the same research, inclu-
sion of up to 0.5% polypropylene fibres could improve the chloride
penetration resistance due to reduced pores conductivity and lower
capillary porosity (Yew et al., 2018a). Similarly, Chandar et al. (2018)
found that the range of charge passed in coconut shell aggregate
concrete was between 3000 and 3500 C at various ages from 3 days
up to 360 days, categorizing the concrete as exhibiting ‘moderate’
chloride penetrability. Comparatively, the amount of charge passed
for normal weight concrete with similar strength grade was
2000e2500 C, which was about 30e40% lower (Chandar et al.,
2018). Similar as the observation for OPS aggregate concrete,
Gunasekaran et al. (2015) found that proper curing (continuous
water curing and site curing method) gave lower charge passed in
RCPT compared to air-dried specimens. For the case of OPBC coarse
aggregate, generally it was found that the concrete prepared had
‘moderate’ to ‘high’ chloride penetrability (Mohammed et al., 2011;
Abutaha et al., 2017). The higher range of chloride penetrability
compared to the use of OPS and coconut shell aggregate could be
related to the higher w/b ratio (0.40e0.53) used as well as lower
 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062 7

Table 3
RCPT results and classification of concrete containing agriculture wastes as full coarse aggregate replacement.

Reference Type of coarse aggregate Charge passed (C) Remarks Classification

Teo et al. (2010) OPS ~3800 C (28 days) Water curing Moderate
~4000 C (28 days) Site curing High
~4500 C (28 days) Air dry High
~3500 C (90 days) Water curing Moderate
~3700 C (90 days) Site curing Moderate
~4200 C (90 days) Air dry High
Islam et al. (2016) OPS ~3300 C (90 days) Water curing Moderate
Yew et al. (2018a) Heat-treated OPS ~1900 C (28 days) Water curing Low
Gunasekaran et al. (2015) Coconut shell ~3250 C (28 days) Water curing Moderate
~2750 C (28 days) Site curing Moderate
~3850 C (28 days) Air dry Moderate
~3100 C (90 days) Water curing Moderate
~2550 C (90 days) Site curing Moderate
~3600 C (90 days) Air dry Moderate
Mohammed et al. (2011) OPBC ~4400 C (28 days) Water curing High
~3900 C (90 days) Water curing Moderate
Abutaha et al. (2017) OPBC ~4800 C (28 days) Water curing High
~4200 C (90 days) Water curing High
OPBC with OPBC fines as filler ~1100 C (28 days) Water curing Low
~900 C (90 days) Water curing Very low

cement content. However, when appropriate amount of OPBC fines
were utilized as filler, the chloride penetrability could be reduced to
the range of ‘low’ to ‘very low’ (Abutaha et al., 2017) due to the
reduced effective water/powder ratio as well as particle packing
effect, which densified the OPBC aggregate concrete.
Kanadasan and Razak (2015) conducted the electrical resistivity
test to determine the corrosion potential of self-compacting con-
crete prepared with OPBC aggregate. It was found that although
OPBC aggregates were used to completely replace coarse and fine
aggregates in the concrete, the electrical resistivity recorded after
28 days were above 23 kUm, which can be classified as ‘low’
corrosion potential. This was similarly reported in Kanadasan et al.
(2018) whereby the obtained electrical resistivity of self-
compacting mortar was improved when only OPBC fine aggregate
was utilized as sand replacement.
6. Sulphate resistance
beneficial in reducing the mass loss and compressive strength loss
of coconut shell aggregate concrete immersed in sulphate solution.
The utilization of SCMs could reduce C3A content while the
pozzolanic reaction consumed CH; among the SCMs, fly ash was the
more effective SCM (Regin et al., 2017). Similarly, Muthusamy et al.
(2018) found that the mass loss of OPS aggregate concrete was in
the similar range at about 2.40% while the inclusion of fly ash at 10%
cement replacement could help in reducing the mass loss. Islam
et al. (2016) also found that the compressive strength loss of OPS
aggregate concrete upon prolonged immersion in magnesium
sulphate solution was between 7 and 20%, and at higher w/b ratio,
the strength loss was lower. Nevertheless, inclusion of another type
of SCM, namely POFA could decrease the strength loss due to
pozzolanic reaction which reacted with CH. Kabir et al. (2017),
revealed the strength loss was only about up to 2.5% when OPBC
was utilized as full coarse aggregate replacement in geopolymer-
based concrete.

The properties of concrete (upon immersion in sulphate solu- 7. Acid resistance

tions) containing agricultural wastes as coarse aggregate are sum-
marized in Table 4. Typically, concrete containing coconut shell
aggregate exhibited around 1.5e2% reduction in mass upon im-
mersion in magnesium and sodium sulphate solutions (Nadir and
Sujatha, 2018; Regin et al., 2017), whereas the compressive
strength loss was about 15% (Regin et al., 2017). Moreover, fly ash
and silica fume as partial cement replacement of up to 10% was
Table 4 gives the influence of acid attack on the properties of
concrete with agricultural wastes as the coarse aggregate. Re-
searchers have reported the compressive strength loss of coconut
shell aggregate (Regin et al., 2017) concrete to be 20e25% when
immersed in acidic solutions. Nevertheless, SCMs such as fly ash,
silica fume and POFA could partially compensate this loss due to the

Table 4
Chemical resistance of concrete containing agricultural wastes as full coarse aggregate replacement.

Coarse aggregate Mass loss (%) Strength loss (%) Solution Duration

Sulphate resistance
OPS (Muthusamy et al., 2018) 2.4 e 5% sodium sulphate 150 days
OPS (Islam et al., 2016) e 7.0e20.2 5% magnesium sulphate 90 days
Coconut shell (Regin et al., 2017) 1.5 14.0 5% sodium sulphate 120 days
1.3 16.0 5% magnesium sulphate 120 days
OPBC (Kabir et al., 2017) e 2.5 5% magnesium sulphate 90 days
*geopolymer-based

Acid resistance
Coconut shell (Regin et al., 2017) 2.0e2.6 20.5e26.2 Sulphuric acid (pH 1e2) 120 days
Coconut shell (Sathiparan and De Soyza et al., 2018) 3.0e4.0 e 3% sulphuric acid 30e60 days
Malkawi et al. (2020) 3.1 42.0 5% sulphuric acid 90 days
*geopolymer-based and contains 100% OPBC fine aggregate
8 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062
pozzolanic reaction which consumed CH and densify the micro-
structure of the concrete (Muthusamy et al., 2015; Regin et al.,
2017). The mass loss of coconut shell aggregate concrete was
found to be in the range of 2e4% (Regin et al., 2017; Sathiparan and
De Soyza et al., 2018) when immersed in sulphuric acid solution,
which was lower than concretes prepared with other types of
agricultural wastes such as peanut shell, sawdust and straw.
Malkawi et al. (2020) prepared geopolymer-based concrete
containing mixed OPBC coarse and fine aggregates at increasing
levels of aggregate replacement. In the geopolymer-based concrete
exposed to sulphuric acid solution, the mass loss and compressive
strength loss were 3.1% and 42%, respectively when the OPBC was
utilized as full coarse and fine aggregate replacements (Malkawi
et al., 2020). At lower OPBC contents, the mass loss and compres-
sive strength loss were lower. At 50% replacement of coarse
aggregate and 50% replacement of fine aggregate using OPBC, the
compressive strength loss due to the acid attack was found to be
27% (Malkawi et al., 2020).
8. High temperature resistance
Building material, such as concrete, needs to exhibit certain
resistance towards elevated temperature, which could occur in the
event of fire (Mo et al., 2017a). There are few studies which
investigated the high temperature resistance of concrete contain-
ing the agricultural wastes as coarse aggregate. Generally, for the
OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate, it was found that the
concretes typically lose substantial strength upon exposure to
temperature above 400  C. At exposure to elevated temperatures of
200  C and 400  C, the compressive strength loss was about
30e35% and 55e75%, respectively for concrete prepared with OPS
coarse aggregate (Mo et al., 2015b, 2016). For the case of coconut
shell coarse aggregate concrete, the loss in compressive strength
was about 25e50% and 60e80% at temperatures of 200  C and
400  C, depending on the duration of exposure (Gunasekaran et al.,
2015). At higher temperature of 800  C, the compressive strength
loss was about 80e90% for self-compacting coconut shell aggregate
concrete (Muthusamy and Kolandasamy, 2015). On the other hand,
the high temperature resistance of concrete prepared with OPBC
was reported to be superior. In the research using OPBC as
replacement for OPS aggregate, the strength loss was reduced from
75% to 9% upon exposure to 500  C for 1 h (Jumaat et al., 2015). This
was associated with the thermal stability of the OPBC aggregate
due to the burning process at high temperature in obtaining the
aggregate, and this was also demonstrated by only a slight variation
in weight loss from TGA analysis (Jumaat et al., 2015).
Comparison of the colour changes of these concretes upon
exposure to elevated temperature is shown in Fig. 4. Generally, the
OPS aggregate concrete and coconut shell concrete experienced
change in colour to light brown after exposure to 400  C for 1 h (Mo
et al., 2015b; Gunasekaran et al., 2015). The colour of the concrete
surface changed to light yellow and light grey upon longer exposure
durations of 2 h and 3 h, respectively (Gunasekaran et al., 2015).
Jumaat et al. (2015) found that the colour of the concrete surface
changed to slight reddish at exposure of 500  C for 1 h due to partial
burning of the OPS aggregate while there was no change in colour
for the corresponding OPBC aggregate concrete.
9. Discussion
In overall, it is observed that OPS aggregate and coconut shell
aggregate have similar performance with regards to most of the
durability-related properties. This was due to the similar nature
and physical properties of both materials, as well as the mix design
to produce the resulting concrete. On the other hand, the behaviour
of OPBC aggregate is different and less porous, therefore the mix
design adopted to produce concrete containing the aggregate dif-
fers from those of OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate.
Based on water absorption results, most of the concretes con-
taining agricultural wastes as aggregate can be classified to have
adequate quality. According to CEB-FIP recommendation, concrete
which exhibits 30-min (initial) water absorption of below 3% is
considered to have ‘good’ quality while the water absorption of
between 3 and 5% can be considered as having ‘average’ quality.
Table 1 shows that most of the OPS aggregate concretes had ‘good’
to ‘average’ quality while OPBC aggregate concrete generally had
‘good’ quality. The quality of the OPS aggregate concrete in terms of
water absorption may be improved by altering mix design (such as
lowering of w/b ratio), using suitable SCM at optimum levels or
enhancing the quality of the aggregate itself. Nevertheless, the 72-
hr (final) water absorption of the concretes generally fall below 10%,
which can be considered as having good quality, as suggested by
Neville (1995).
While it has been pointed out that a good quality concrete
should exhibit water sorptivity of below 0.10 mm/min0.5, some of
the OPS aggregate and coconut shell concretes had sorptivity above
0.10 mm/min0.5 at the age of 28 days. Nevertheless, long-term study
carried out have demonstrated that sorptivity of below 0.10 mm/
min0.5 could be attained. For the case of OPBC aggregate, in the
available literature, it was found that the prepared concrete typi-
cally has higher w/b ratio compared to OPS aggregate concrete for a
given compressive strength, which resulted in the higher sorptivity
value. Nevertheless, it is plausible to alter the mix design or provide
prolonged curing to ensure the OPBC aggregate concrete could
attain sorptivity of below 0.10 mm/min0.5.
In terms of drying shrinkage, OPS aggregate concrete (designed
with w/b ratio below 0.40 with the aid of superplasticizer) exhibit
higher shrinkage than corresponding normal weight concrete.
Normal weight concrete typically has drying shrinkage of around
200e800 micro-strains and therefore the use of OPS aggregate
needs to be limited to ensure lower drying shrinkage for structural
application. Comparatively, OPBC aggregate concrete has lower
drying shrinkage that for OPS aggregate concrete due to the less
porous nature and higher elastic modulus of the OPBC aggregate
(Aslam et al., 2017), even though the w/b ratio of OPS aggregate
concrete is typically lower. The OPBC aggregate can be used as
whole coarse aggregate substitute in concrete and still exhibit
similar drying shrinkage as normal weight concrete (Shafigh et al.,
2018).
When analysing the RCPT values of concrete prepared with
agricultural wastes as full coarse aggregate substitute, it was found
that in general the classification of chloride penetrability is ‘mod-
erate’ to ‘high’ (Table 3). It should be noted that OPBC aggregate
concrete without SCM exhibits RCPT in the higher range compared
to those of OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate (Table 3).
This could be related to the mix design adopted, as the w/b ratio
used is lower for the latter concretes and this helps in densifying
the microstructure of the concrete. As most of these concretes can
be classified as having ‘moderate’ chloride penetrability, usage in
structural reinforced concrete at high chloride exposure conditions
is not encouraged.
Although there were fewer studies, available literature suggest
significant strength loss for concretes prepared with the agricul-
tural waste aggregates under severe chemical attack (such as sul-
phate and acid), and therefore the concretes may not be suitable for
these relevant exposure conditions which are severe. Besides that,
in terms of resistance towards elevated temperature, among the
agricultural wastes, OPBC aggregate exhibits the best performance
due to its origin where high temperature burning was involved to
obtain the aggregate. Nevertheless, there is no study that has been
 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062 9

Fig. 4. Colour changes of (a) coconut shell aggregate concrete at 100  C and 400  C (exposure duration: 4 h) (Gunasekaran et al., 2015) (b) OPS aggregate concrete at 100  C and
400  C (exposure duration: 1 h) (Mo et al., 2015b) and (c) OPBC aggregate concrete at 500  C (exposure duration: 1 h) (Jumaat et al., 2015)

conducted to examine the actual fire resistance of these concretes.
Therefore, considering the limited information regarding resistance
towards chemical attack and fire resistance, more in-depth in-
vestigations needs be conducted as future work.
10. Conclusion
The incorporation of agricultural wastes such as OPS aggregate,
coconut shell aggregate and OPBC aggregate requires modification
of mix design (typically with reduced w/b ratio, use of super-
plasticizer and increase in binder content). In this regard, the
improved quality of binder could partially compensate for the
deficiency caused by the more porous aggregates in the place of
normal aggregate. Due to this, the commonly investigated
durability-related properties such as water absorption, sorptivity
and chloride penetrability indicates acceptable quality of the con-
cretes used. However, higher drying shrinkage is a drawback of the
concrete prepared with OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate.
Furthermore, despite the limited literature on the behaviour of
these concretes in chemical environment and high temperature, it
is generally suggested that the concretes prepared using OPS
aggregate and coconut shell aggregate are not suitable for the
respective severe exposure conditions. Nevertheless, based on most
of the reviewed durability-related properties, the use of OPBC
aggregate is most suitable among the agricultural wastes. The
incorporation of OPS aggregate and coconut shell aggregate, on the
other hand, should be limited to partial aggregate replacement in
concrete considering the durability-related properties.
10 K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 275 (2020) 123062
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The financial support provided by University of Malaya under
the research grant GPF034A-2018 is gratefully acknowledged.
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