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Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast
furnace slag based geopolymer concrete for sustainable future
Shaswat Kumar Das a,⇑, Jyotirmoy Mishra b, Saurabh Kumar Singh a, Syed Mohammed Mustakim c,
Alok Patel a, Sitansu Kumar Das a, Umakanta Behera a
a
Government College of Engineering, Keonjhar 758002, India
b
Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, Sambalpur 768018, India
c
CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar 751013, India

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

Article history: Rice husk ash is an agro-waste of rice milling industries produced more than 20 million tons per annum
Received 9 December 2019 globally, causing various environmental and public health issues. The first part of this study attempted to
Received in revised form 22 February 2020 analyse its physical, chemical, and microstructural properties with different advanced analytical tech-
Accepted 25 February 2020
niques, such as- XRF, XRD, PSA, FTIR, and FESEM. Furthermore, the experimental program has been con-
Available online xxxx
ducted to study the behaviour of fly ash- blast furnace slag based geopolymer concrete with different
percentage of rice husk ash inclusion for its utilization in geopolymer concrete. The result explicates that
Keywords:
with an increasing percentage of RHA in geopolymer concrete, both the workability and compressive
Rice husk ash
Geopolymer concrete
strength reduces. Nevertheless, the geopolymer concrete with 10% RHA exhibited a compressive strength
Microstructural properties of 25 MPa; the grade of concrete which is widely accepted for most of the construction works which ulti-
Workability mately widens the scope of RHA for a greener binder synthesis through geopolymerization.
Compressive strength Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International
Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials.

1. Introduction
Climate change and water scarcity continue to dominate inter-
national global policy standards regarding the future state of
human development. Our fundamental concern remains to under-
stand the relation between climate change and water stress [1,2],
which demands the identification of sources of greenhouse gas
emissions (CO2) responsible for climate change and their signifi-
cant effects on the hydrological cycle [3]. The last 40 years wit-
nessed major human activity in terms of socio-economic
developments, which seems to a prime reason for alteration of
earth’s climate, and this is confirmed by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up by the World Meteorologi-
cal Organization. Concrete produced from cement is undoubtedly
one of the most widely used construction material. The annual glo-
bal production of Portland cement was roughly estimated to be 4.1
Gt [5]. And cement manufacturing sector contributes 8% of the
total greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), which is increasing at an
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shaswatdas_sce@gcekjr.ac.in (S.K. Das).
alarming rate due to the unprecedented growth of the human pop-
ulation and rapid industrialization [4,6,7]. Massive amount of
cement and concrete production also requires the consumption
of a huge amount of freshwater (approximately 1 trillion L every
year) for mixing and curing raising a serious concern of acute water
shortage [8]. Hence, the concrete industry certainly stands
accountable for serious environmental impacts regarding climate
change and water stress. How can we minimize the negative envi-
ronmental impact of the concrete industry at this crucial stage?
One innovative approach would be reducing consumption of
cement by the adoption of eco-friendly construction materials such
as geopolymers. Production of geopolymer products generates 80%
less CO2 than Portland cement, conserves natural resources by uti-
lizing industrial waste products [9]. Geopolymer concrete utilizes
industrial waste products such as fly ash, GGBFS, rice husk ash, fer-
rochrome ash, etc. which are considered rich in silica and alumina,
thereby providing a cement-free construction alternative for the
concrete industry. The reaction mechanism involves the dissolu-
tion of these Si/Al atoms from the precursor under alkaline condi-
tions (Na/K based hydroxide/silicates). And the most interesting
aspect of geopolymers is that its production does not require

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Processing and Characterization of Materials.

Please cite this article as: S. K. Das, J. Mishra, S. K. Singh et al., Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast furnace slag based
geopolymer concrete for sustainable future, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
2 S.K. Das et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
excessive usage of water as mixing water, and there is no need for
water-curing at all. Rather geopolymerization involves the release
of free water at the last step [3], which helps the fresh concrete to
achieve good workability.
The milling process includes boiling of rice which ultimately
needs heat energy, instead of depending on another source of
energy most of the rice mills have their boiler to produce heat
energy. During the energy production, the produced rice husk
(hulls) from the milling process is used as fuel and burnt inside
the boiler in a controlled temperature by direct combustion or
gasification [15]. After this process, a residual inorganic byproduct
generated called rice husk ash (RHA), which contains highly reac-
tive silica within its mass [4,16]. The RHA properties could be vary
depending on the various criteria, such as burning temperature
and holding time [17]. Higher temperature results in more crys-
talline silica and larger holding time results in less amount of
unburnt carbon of the produced RHA [18]. The burning conditions
largely impact the physicochemical properties such as particle size,
surface area, crystallography, mineralogy, composition, ash con-
tent, porosity, and pore structure (meso-pores, micro-pores, and
macro-pores) [18]. The reactivity of RHA mostly depends on its
mineralogy; RHA containing more amorphous silica is more reac-
tive than that of RHA having more crystalline silica phases.
Liang et al. (2019) investigated the compressive strength devel-
opment of metakaolin-RHA based geopolymers where RHA was
replaced metakaolin partially up to 40%, and thermal stability
and microstructures were discussed. The results indicated that
RHA particles acted as pore-fillers, thus enriching gel phases,
which in turn provided excellent thermal stability in comparison
to OPC paste at 600–800 °C [13]. Sturm et al. (2016) synthesized
one-part geopolymers by mixing rice husk ash with sodium alumi-
nate at a ratio to yield SiO2/Al2O3 = 3.5 and later curing at 800 °C
the compressive strength of the produced concrete was found to
be 30 MPa just after curing for 1-day. The authors established the
application of RHA in production of one-part geopolymers [12].
Hwang et al. (2015) combined class F-fly ash and rice husk ash
along (0–50%) with Na- based alkaline solution (8–14 M) to pro-
duce geopolymers cured at 35 °C and 50% relative humidity. Based
on the compressive strength test results, the authors found that at
10 M concentration of NaOH and 35% RHA content, optimum val-
ues are achieved and with the help of various chemical analysis,
they concluded that the major crystalline phases found in the
resulted geopolymer were quartz, cristobalite and mullite [11].
He et al. (2013) developed a new type of geopolymer binders which
were synthesized from Red Mud (RM) and rice husk ash at varying
mixing ratios. The synthesized geopolymer binder/products were
characterized by various mechanical parameters such as compres-
sion, X-ray Diffraction, and SEM. The compressive strengths up to
20.5 MPa were reported to be achieved, and the authors suggested
this RM-RHA based green binder as a potential cementitious con-
struction material with higher stiffness and ductility [10]. How-
ever, the extensive study of RHA regarding its characterization
and incorporation is required; specifically, the effect of RHA is
not studied yet in FA-GGBFS based geopolymers. Therefore, this
study was carried out to observe the physicochemical and miner-
alogical properties of RHA and its effect on FA-GGBFS based
geopolymer concrete properties.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Rice husk ash (RHA)
The RHA was obtained from Shree Agreeco Pvt. Ltd. situated at
padmapur in keonjhar district of Odisha, India. The used RHA was
Please cite this article as: S. K. Das, J. Mishra, S. K. Singh et al., Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast furnace slag based
geopolymer concrete for sustainable future, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
of grey-black colour and with high amorphous silica content.
Obtained RHA was ground in ball mill for size optimization as finer
particles exhibit high reactivity during the condensation in the
geopolymerization process. Laser scattering particle size analysis
result indicated the used RHA had a particle size distribution as
follows- d10- 4.7 mm, d50-10.73 mm and d90- 35.08 mm.
2.1.2. Fly ash (FA)
Fly ash Fly ash of class-F as specified by ASTM International
(ASTM C618) [14] was used for this study as the primary source
material. Used FA was of light grey colour with 60% silica (SiO2)
and 30% alumina (Al2O3) content as determined by the XRF analy-
sis. Used FA has different range of particles such as d10-4.6 mm, d50-
17.7 mm and d90- 106 mm as revealed by PSA.
2.1.3. Blast furnace slag (BFS)
Blast furnace slag (BFS) was used as a secondary source material
and was obtained from Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), Jaj-
pur, India. The BFS was ground in ball mill to achieve ground gran-
ulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and used during the experiments.
GGBFS had a particle size gradation of d10- 4.6 mm, d50- 21.6 mm
and d90- 217.9 mm.
2.1.4. Aggregate and alkaline liquids
Naturally available coarse aggregates and river sand were used
during the experiment. The size of the coarse aggregates was less
than 20 mm (20 mm down), while the grade of the sand used
was Zone-II as per IS-383 (2016) [26]. A mixture of sodium-
based silicate and hydroxide was taken as the alkaline activator.
The purity of NaOH taken was 98%, while the SiO2/NaO ratio of
the silicate solution was 2.028.
2.2. Characterization of RHA
2.2.1. Physical, chemical and microstructural properties
Obtained RHA has been subjected to various test for analysis of
physical, chemical, and microstructural property valuation. Speci-
fic gravity, visual analysis, and particle size distribution were done
for physical property valuation while FESEM, XRF, and FTIR were
done for chemical and microstructural property assessment. The
physical properties of RHA as observed are given in the Table 1.
2.2.2. Particle size analysis (PSA)
The PSA was done with the help of laser scattering particle size
distribution analyser (HORIBA LA-960) in reference to ISO
13320:2009 [27]. The mean particle size of RHA was found to be
21.4 mm while 90% of the particles were under 35 mm. The PSA
graph of RHA is shown in Fig. 1b.
2.2.3. X-ray diffraction and X-ray florescence (XRD and XRF)
The XRD and XRF were done to have chemical and mineralogi-
cal information regarding the RHA. The plotted diffractogram
(Fig. 2) shows intensive peaks of quartz (ICSD- 00-046-1045 and
ICSD- 00-033-1161) at 24.3, 28.22, 30.7, and 41.6 angles (2theta),
which indicates the dominating silica phases of the material. The
major part of the diffraction pattern is amorphous with few crys-
Table 1
Physical properties of RHA.
Sl. no Particulars Properties
01 Colour Grey/Black
02 Odour Odourless
03 Mean Particle Size (grounded) 21.4
04 Specific gravity 2.3
05 Mineralogy Amorphous
 S.K. Das et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Fig. 1. (a) - Rice husk ash, (b) - Particle size distribution of RHA.

Fig. 3. FTIR spectra of RHA.

Fig. 2. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum of RHA.

803.83 cm and 898.22 cm 1 imitates the symmetrical stretching

1

vibration of OASiAO bonds referring the observations of Javed [19]

talline silica peaks as it could be seen there is a broad hump
between 20° and 30° (2theta). The other mineral phases such as
calcite (ICSD- 00-005-0586), hematite (ICSD- 00-033-0664) and
corundum (ICSD- 00-010-0173) were also found which were in
latent phases. The XRF of RHA was done to find the chemical com-
position in oxides form, a significant part of the RHA is silicon diox-
ide as it nearly contributes 96% of the total mass. The XRF data is
represented in Table 2, which also gives the evidence of the pres-
ence of lime (calcite), alumina (corundum) and iron (hematite) as
resolute by XRD.
2.2.4. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
The FTIR spectroscopy of RHA (Fig. 3) stretches major peaks at
473 cm 1, 548 cm 1, 898.22 cm 1, 647.87 cm 1, 803.83 cm 1,
898.22 cm 1, 1105.88 cm 1, 1299 cm 1, 1478.52 cm 1,
1 1 1
1195.34 cm , 2257 cm and 3216 cm . The bands between
800 cm 1 and 1000 cm 1 were observed due to stretching vibra-
tion of SiAO bonds whereas bands from 400 to 500 cm 1 signifies
the bending vibration of SiAO bonds [20]. The bands at
(806 cm 1 and 797 cm 1) and Hadipramana (787.76 cm 1) [21].
The band at 3216 cm 1 is the identification of presence of free
H2O molecules providing free stretching vibrations.
2.2.5. Field emission scanning electron microscope analysis (FESEM)
FESEM was conducted to perceive the morphology and
microstructure of RHA, JSM-6480LV (JEOL) was used for the exper-
imentation. The powdered RHA was coated with a platinum coat-
ing to perform the test for better visibility with smooth charge
conductivity enabling exact topographic examination. The FESEM
result of RHA is given in the Fig. 4, RHA particles were angular in
shape with a large variety of size as appeared in the electron image.
From the particle structural appearance, it can be noticed that the
particles are porous in nature containing the macro, micro, and
meso pores. The EDX spectrum indicates the abundant presence
of silicon and oxygen atoms, which denotes the presence of silica
(silicon dioxide) throughout its volume. Table 3 represents the
chemical composition of RHA by EDX, where at spectrum-1, only
silicon and oxygen were detected confirming the presence of a
large amount of silica.

Table 2
Chemical composition of RHA by XRF.

Composition SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO Fe2O3 K2O Na2O P2O5 MnO SO3 LOI
Percentage By wt. 96.235 0.281 0.578 0.269 1.366 0.454 0.054 0.361 0.091 0.202 N/A

Please cite this article as: S. K. Das, J. Mishra, S. K. Singh et al., Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast furnace slag based
geopolymer concrete for sustainable future, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
4 S.K. Das et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. SEM and EDX figures of RHA.

Table 3 4. The compressive strength assessment was done in different time

Chemical composition of RHA by EDX. intervals according to IS-516 (1959) [25].
Elements Weight % Atomic%
OK 60.92 73.24 3. Results and discussions
Si K 39.08 26.76
Total 100.00 3.1. Effect of RHA on workability

The workability of the geopolymer concrete with different per-

centages of RHA inclusion has been plotted in Fig. 5. FA has a
2.3. Methods and mixture proportions spherical particle shape, whereas RHA and GGBFS have angular
particle shapes, which have a direct effect on the workability as
Geopolymer concrete properties are different from OPC con- observed during the study; however, the large surface area and
crete in terms of both fresh and hardened concrete properties. Cur- high porosity of the RHA particles could have affected the worka-
rently, there are no specific code provisions/methods are available bility of GPC. The presence of intra-structural pores must have
for the mix design of geopolymer concrete both in Indian and inter- stored the water generated from geopolymerization process, mak-
national standards. The mix proportion for geopolymer concrete ing the mixture more cohesive; similar observation was found by
was taken as 1:1:3 (Binder: Fine aggregate: Coarse aggregate) by Parveen et al., in their study [30]. The concrete mixture containing
weight. A total of six concrete mixes were casted to study the effect no RHA (S1) exhibits good workability, and with an increment of
of RHA (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 10%) replacing the FA content in the
mixture. The ratio of sodium hydroxide-to-sodium silicate (liquid)
was taken as 1:2 (by volume). The ratio of alkaline solution-to-fly
ash ratio was considered as 0.47, and 400gm of additional water
was added in each of the 6-concrete mixes. The workability of
the geopolymer concrete was determined by slump cone method
as specified by Indian standards IS-1199 (1959) [23], and the
moulds used for concrete casting were cube moulds
(150  150  150 mm) referring to Indian standards IS- 10086
(1982) [24]. The curing method adopted for strength development
was room temperature curing (inside the laboratory), and the
experiments were carried out during the months of November-
December 2018 in Bhubaneswar, India. As curing temperature
plays a vital role in strength development of geopolymer concrete,
keen observation had been taken on the variation of monthly tem-
perature; as from daily temperature assessment the average tem-
perature during the entire investigation was 21 °C. The mixture
proportions taken for this investigation is tabulated below in table Fig. 5. Workability of geopolymer concrete with RHA.

Table 4
GPC mixture proportions.

Sl No. Mix Name Fly Ash GGBFS RHA Coarse Aggregates Fine Aggregates Alkaline Liquid Extra Water
(Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (L/m3) (L/m3)
01 S1 343.00 147.00 0.00 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60
02 S2 339.57 147.00 3.430 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60
03 S3 332.71 147.00 10.29 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60
04 S4 325.85 147.00 17.15 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60
05 S5 318.99 147.00 24.01 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60
06 S6 308.70 147.00 34.30 1470.00 490.00 147.00 19.60

Please cite this article as: S. K. Das, J. Mishra, S. K. Singh et al., Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast furnace slag based
geopolymer concrete for sustainable future, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
 S.K. Das et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 5

Fig. 6. Compressive strength of FA-GGBFS based geopolymer concrete with RHA.

RHA inclusion level, the workability decreases gradually (Fig. 5).
GPC mixture S1 (0% RHA) shows the highest degree of workability
showing a value of 40 mm (slump value) whereas with 1.0%, 3.0%,
5.0%, 7.0% and 10% RHA replacement, the resulted GPC showed 30,
20, 19, 17 and 11 mm of slump value respectively as depicted in
the graph (Fig. 5).
 The angular and porous particles of RHA reduces the workabil-
ity due to high inter-particle cohesion and higher water demand
leading to a cohesive and sticky concrete mixture.
 Nevertheless, 10% RHA can be utilized obtaining an M20 grade
concrete for moderate loading conditions in residential building
promoting sustainable development.

3.2. Effect of RHA on compressive strength development

CRediT authorship contribution statement
Fig. 6 shows the trend of compressive strength development of
Shaswat Kumar Das: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visual-
GPC samples with different percentages of RHA inclusion. The
ization, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Jyotirmoy Mishra:
cubes (150  150  150 mm) were tested in a compression testing
Visualization. Saurabh Kumar Singh: . Syed Mohammed Mus-
machine (HEICO 2000KN capacity) at 7, 14, and 28 days interval.
takim: Supervision. Alok Patel: . Sitansu Kumar Das: . Umakanta
With the increment in RHA concentrations in FA-GGBFS geopoly-
Behera: .
mer concrete strength, decrement was observed, similar observa-
tions were found by Inti et al. (2016) in their investigation [22].
The Fig. 6 indicates the strength profile of casted samples; it can Declaration of Competing Interests
be seen from the Fig. 6 with 0% RHA a maximum compressive
strength of 39 MPa was achieved, while at 10% RHA replacement The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
level a significant decrement in compressive strength was noticed cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
yielding a compressive strength of 25.3 MPa. The decrement in the to influence the work reported in this paper.
compressive strength of the GPC mixtures with RHA is due to an
imbalance of the Al/Si ratio, as RHA contains a negligible amount
Acknowledgements
of alumina [22]. Nonetheless, there could be a problem of dissolu-
tion of the silica present in RHA due to less sodium hydroxide
The authors are sincerely acknowledged to TEQIP-III (GCE,
molar concentration and low atmospheric temperature conditions
Keonjhar cell), Govt. of India, and CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, for
(22–23 °C average temperature) which ultimately would have hin-
the funding and research facilities respectively. The authors also
dered the poly-condensation process leading to polymerization of
convey their regards to Prof. Trilochan Sahu, principal of Govt. Col-
precursors to form amorphous aluminosilicate geopolymer prod-
lege of Engineering, Keonjhar, for continuous support and help.
ucts such as N-A-S-H and C-A-S-H [28,29].
Prof. Ajit Behera (NIT, Rourkela) is also acknowledged for his sup-
port regarding XRD and FESEM analysis of RHA.
4. Conclusions

The following conclusions may be drawn from the above results
and discussions of the performed experimental investigation.
 RHA contains a high amount of amorphous silica with porous
structured particles which increases its specific surface area
resulting in better reactivity. But due to less NaOH molar con-
centration leading to poor silica dissolution and unbalanced
Al/Si ratio (negligible alumina content in RHA), RHA had a neg-
ative impact on the compressive strength development.
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Please cite this article as: S. K. Das, J. Mishra, S. K. Singh et al., Characterization and utilization of rice husk ash (RHA) in fly ash – Blast furnace slag based
geopolymer concrete for sustainable future, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.870
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