Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

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Investigation of the performance of natural molasses on physical and

mechanical properties of cement mortar
Dirgha Prasad Acharya a, Tek Raj Gyawali a,⇑
a
School of Engineering, Pokhara University, Nepal

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

Article history: This paper compares the performance of natural molasses (NM) and superplasticizer (SP) on the proper-
Received 4 March 2023 ties of cement mortar. The base mortar with a w/c ratio of 0.50 and a unit water content of 220 kg/m3 was
Revised 13 May 2023 used in this experimental work. The different percentages of NM and SP (by weight of cement) were used
Accepted 1 June 2023
to assess the physical and mechanical properties of the cement mortar. Test results showed that NM was
Available online 21 June 2023
a better retarder, milder plasticizer, and has stronger viscosity-enhancing capacity than SP. The optimum
content of NM was 87% less than SP. A similar compressive strength was obtained with the optimum con-
Keywords:
tent of NM and SP. However, the splitting tensile strength with NM was more than that with SP. NM helps
Natural molasses
Workability
to reduce the cement. It produces cheaper green concrete to support the development of sustainable
Compressive strength infrastructures. The effect of NM on durability properties is yet to be studied.
Splitting tensile strength Ó 2023 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
Green concrete This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
Sustainable development nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Concrete, as one of the most important construction materials,
has played a significant role in infrastructure development in the
world. Since the date of its introduction and implementation in
structures, many research works have been carried out to enhance
its quality in different aspects. One of the major revolutions in the
enhancement of concrete properties is due to the use of different
mineral and chemical admixtures. The main effects of these admix-
tures on concrete are improving workability and finishing, acceler-
ating or retarding the setting time, reducing the water requirement
to enhance the strength development, and improving durability
with the resistance of chemicals and freeze–thaw attacks. The
proper use of different admixtures has made it possible to develop
different types of concretes to enhance the quality of structures.
The content of mineral admixtures ranges from 10% to 35% (by
weight of cement) and the chemical admixture from 0.005% to
⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Engineering, Pokhara University, Pokhara
Metropolitan City-30, P.O. Box 427, Kaski, Nepal.
E-mail addresses: dirgha795@gmail.com (D. Prasad Acharya), tekrg@pu.edu.np
(T. Raj Gyawali).
q
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
2.5% [1]. While mixing in concrete, chemical admixtures (in liquid
form) are considered part of water [2]. Fly ash, grounded blast fur-
nace slag, silica fume, metakaolin, and rice husk ash (RHA) are com-
mon examples of mineral admixtures being used in concrete [3].
ASTM C 494–10 has classified chemical admixtures as water-
reducing, retarding, accelerating, water-reducing and retarding,
water-reducing and accelerating, high range water reducing or
superplasticizers, high range water reducing and retarding, and
specific performance admixtures [4]. The air-entrained agent was
the first chemical admixture introduced in 1930. The use of air-
entrained agents in concrete enhances the durability properties,
especially by resisting chemical attacks as well as freezing and
thawing actions with a slight increase in workability [5–6]. How-
ever, the use of a small dosage of highly efficient air-entrained
agents increases the air content with no effect on workability [7].
These days, sustainable development has become the main slo-
gan in the infrastructure sector to solve environmental issues,
especially with the selection of relevant construction materials
[8]. Many efforts have been made to decrease the amount of
cement and chemicals and reuse the waste in concrete. Fly ash
[9–11], slag [12], and silica fume [13] are the most common min-
eral admixtures obtained from industrial waste. These admixtures
not only enhance the physical, mechanical, and durability proper-
ties of concrete but also contributes to the reduction of the cement
content. Metakalin [14] is another mineral admixture for the par-
tial replacement of cement. The production of recycled concrete
using concrete debris has significantly helped to protect the envi-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102355
2090-4479/Ó 2023 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

ronment [8,14–17]. The management of plastic and glass wastage green concrete can be produced for the sustainable development
is become possible with their use in concrete [9,18]. The produc- of infrastructures in Nepal. Considering this fact, the hypothesis
tion of geopolymer mortar/concrete has contributed to minimize was made that the use of NM may replace some of the imported
environmental pollution [17,19–22]. Research work has also been chemical admixtures to enhance the properties of the concrete.
performed to reuse the tire rubber wastage particles in rubberized Thus in this initial stage, the authors intended to investigate the
concrete [23]. Furthermore, efforts have been made to minimizing performance of NM on the physical and mechanical properties of
the environmental problems by using palm oil clinker and fuel gas cement mortar. If this research works prevails in the expected
[24], lime dust [25], cement kiln dust [26–27], and micro sand [28] results on physical and mechanical properties of the mortar, it
in concrete. gives the significant scope to rationalize the infrastructure devel-
The use of admixtures has made it possible to develop new opment of Nepal in terms of both economy and environment.
types of concretes, like self-compacting concrete (SCC) [29–30],
high-strength concrete (HSC) [31], and Super Quality Concrete 2. Material and methods
(SQC) [32]. Ultra-high-performance concrete was also possible to
develop with significant enhancement in workability, strength, The flow chart of the overall work process is shown in Fig. 1.
and durability [33–36]. The required strength of concrete was pos-
sible to achieve in the early ages of concrete with the use of an 2.1. Material
accelerator [37–39]. It is possible to slow the hydration of cement,
especially needed in dam construction and road pavement using Before the production of the NM, the composition of raw sugar-
roller-compacted concrete [40–41]. The heavyweight concrete cane juice was tested. Its moisture content was 83.7%, with reduc-
was developed using a superplasticizer and viscosity agent [42]. ing sugars of 0.76% and total sugars of 17.6%. NM was prepared by
It was made possible to enhance the flexural strength and ductility boiling sugarcane juice for five hours at a high temperature
of synthetic fiber-reinforced cement mortar with the use of super- (
105 °C). During the boiling, all impurities accumulated on the
plasticizers and viscosity agents [43–44]. top surface were removed simultaneously. The measured moisture
Despite the advantages of using chemical admixtures in con- content of NM was dropped to 58.3% increasing the sugar content
crete, it harms the environment. Since they are produced from accordingly. Poly Carboxylic Ether type SP (KEM SUPLAST SCC 30)
petrochemical and coal resources, it creates environmental dam- was also used as a superplasticizer (SP) for the comparison. It is
age. It leads to pollution of the environment during the process light brown and has a specific gravity of 1.07, a pH value of 7,
of production, transportation, storage, and use of concrete [45]. and a chloride content of less than 0.05%. Fig. 2 shows the sample
Since chemical admixtures are soluble in water, it brings the prob- of NM and SP.
lems of leaching in the hardened state when exposed to a severe/
extreme environment. These problems become more severe after
the demolition of concrete structures [46]. To solve such environ-
mental problems, many researchers have tried to replace chemical
admixtures with naturally available resources [47–49]. One of the
replacement materials is molasses.
The sugarcane raw juice contains 80–85% water and the remain-
ing (15–20%) dry matter consists of 30% sucrose and 70% lignocellu-
lose [50]. Molasses (or Treacle in the UK market) is the concentrated
juice obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet [50]. Molasses contains
50% sucrose, 30% other sugars, and 20% water [51], Molasses
obtained from sugar factories, as a bi-product, are used in the con-
crete. It is claimed that molasses act as a mid-range plasticizer to
increase workability, retards hydration, and harms the durability of
concrete [52–53]. Due to the presence of non-reducing sugar like
sucrose and raffinose, molasses has an excellent retarding capability
[54]. The cause of retardation is due to the effect of calcium-binding
and complexing ability [55]. The retarder produces the denser C-S-H
gel of the cement paste at the later stage of hydration increasing the
strength [2,55]. The addition of molasses improves the both
microstructure and strength of cement paste [56]. The use of
molasses decreased the initial (7-day and 14-day) compressive
strength but slightly increased the 28-day strength [57]. Beet
molasses increases the ductility of bitumen [58].
Natural molasses (NM) is produced from sugar cane juice in Nepal.
It is boiled in drums at a high temperature (>105 °C). During the boil-
ing process, all impurities floating on the surface are extracted peri-
odically. After boiling for about five hours, natural molasses is
prepared. It is a golden-brown colored and highly viscous liquid.
Some literature was found about using sugar factory bi-product
blackstrap molasses in mortar/concrete. No previous work was
found about the use of NM in mortar/concrete. Since all types of
chemical admixtures should be imported, their costs are extremely
high in Nepal. In comparison, the cost of NM is cheaper. Moreover,
if it can replace chemical admixtures to enhance the properties of
concrete, its production can be significantly increased. Moreover, if
NM is industrialized and commercialized, the required quality of Fig. 1. Flow chart of the overall work process.

2
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

Fig. 2. NM and SP used in the experiments.

The cement was 43-grade ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The

physical and mechanical properties of cement were conducted fol-
lowing the Indian standard procedures. The specific gravity of the
cement was determined following IS 2720 (Part III) [59]. The con-
sistency and soundness tests were carried out following IS 4031
(Part IV) [60] and IS 4031(part III) [61] respectively. Setting time
and compressive strength tests were carried out following IS
4031 (Part V) [62] and IS 4031 (Part VI) [63] respectively. Its main
properties are shown in Table 1.
The crushed sand was sieved following the procedure pre-
scribed by IS2386 (Part I) [64]. The maximum size of the sand
was 4.75 mm as per IS code. The grading curve of the sieve analysis
is shown in Fig. 3. The test data were nearer to the lower boundary
of the sand zone 3. The fineness modulus was 2.59. Its water
absorption capacity and specific gravity, as measured according
to IS2386 (Part III) [65], were 1.91% and 2.65 respectively. The
water used was clean and drinkable with a pH value of 7.0.

2.2. Methods
Fig. 3. Grading curve of the sand used in the experiment.
The mixture proportion of the base cement mortar (BM) is
shown in Table 2.
similar workability to that of BM. The cement content was
The above mixture proportion is the mortar portion of the
increased by keeping the unit water content constant. The com-
workable concrete, generally used in building construction in
pressive strength values at that level were compared between
Nepal. The BM has zero content of NM or SP. While using the
NMM and SPM.
admixtures with ranging percentage (by weight of cement) in
The moisture content of sand was determined following IS2386
NM-used mortar (NMM) or SP-used mortar (SPM), the unit water
(Part III) [65] before the batching. JJ-5 type mortar mixer of 10 L
content was adjusted.
capacity was used for mixing the cement mortar. The volume of
Since NM contains high content of sugar, it should have a high
cement per batch was 7 L.
retarding effect on concrete [53]. The content of NM and SP was
The weighed NM or SP was pre-mixed with water. Half of the
finalized with trial tests on workability, demolding, water curing,
batched sand was put into the mixer and then the whole cement
and 7-day compressive strength tests. The workability, density,
followed by the remaining sand. The dry mixing was done for
and compressive strength tests were performed.
30 s at low speed (62 ± 5 rpm) and the water was added part by
The optimum dosage of NM and SP was used to determine the
part while running the mixer at low speed. After finishing adding
optimum low level of w/c ratio for NMM and SPM, maintaining
water, the wet mixing was done for 2 min at high speed
(125 ± 10 rpm). The room temperature and humidity were main-
Table 1 tained at 20 ± 2 °C and 65 ± 5% respectively. Most of the experi-
Basic characteristics of cement. mental works and tests were performed following the respective
Items Values codes prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. ASTM guideli-
nes were also followed for some tests.
Specific gravity 3.15
Normal consistency 31.5% The workability test of the mixed mortar was performed with
Le-Chatelier 2 mm table flow tests following IS 5512–1983 [66]. The initial and final
Initial setting time 125 min setting time of the mortar was evaluated with the Vicat method
Final setting time 210 min [62]. The preparations of test specimens and compressive strength
Compressive strength at 28-day 52.15 MPa

3
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali
Table 2
Mixture proportions of base cement mortar.
w/c W C FA Admixtures
(Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) (by wt. of C)
0.50 220 440 1697 ranging
Note: w/c: water-cement ratio; W: Unit water content; C: unit cement content; FA:
unit sand content.
tests were carried out with the procedure listed in IS: 516 (1959)
[67]. 6 cubes (50 mm  50 mm  50 mm) and 3 cylinders
(U50mm  100 mm) were produced for compressive (7-day and
28-day) and splitting tensile tests (28-day). The densities of hard-
ened cubes were measured before strength tests. The strength tests
of the specimens were performed on the universal testing machine
(UTM) of 1000 KN capacity. The precautions were made to main-
tain the loading rate error within ±2% of the maximum load and
the departing of the bearing surface within 0.01 mm at any point.
The loading rate was maintained at 14 MPa/minute as recom-
mended by IS 516 [67]. The compressive strength test procedure
of the cubes in UTM is shown in Fig. 4.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Test results
The specimens with 1.5% and 2.0% NM were not hardened dur-
ing 24 h period. The specimens with 1.0% were de-molded care-
fully but got demolished while immersing in a water tank for
wet curing. It suggested that NM can be considered as the high-
range retarding agent. The parametric range of NM content was
0%, 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1.0% by weight of
cement. The cement mortar started to segregate while using 1.0%
and was fully segregated with 1.5% of SP in the case of SPM. Thus,
the range of SP was fixed as 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0% for
SPM.
Fig. 5 shows the variation in the setting time of cement paste
while increasing the dosages of NM and SP.
The experimental data showed that NM is a more effective
retarder than SP. The increase of NM steeply increased the retard-
ing effect. However, the increase was gradual in the case of SP. It
coincides with previous researchers’ output that molasses is an
effective retarder [52–55]. Yildrim and Altun also used 3 types of
molasses from different factories and concluded that the use of
molasses effectively increases both the initial and final setting time
of mortar [51]. Kassa found that 0.075–0.1% molasses increased the
setting time and 0.3% decreased [68]. In contradiction, Juneja et al.
claimed that the lower dosage of molasses (up to 0.5%) acts as the
Fig. 4. Compressive strength test procedure of cubes in UTM.
4
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355
Fig. 5. Relationship between setting time of cement paste and dosage of
admixtures.
accelerator and the higher dosage (0.75–2.0%) acts as the retarder
[69]. However, the setting time of mortar was found to increase
while increasing NM dosage up to 1% in this study. In comparison
with other researchers’ results, retarding effect of NM was more
than that of molasses from the factories. It is because NM contains
more sugar.
Fig. 6 illustrates the relation of the table flow value of NMM and
SPM with different dosages of NM and SP. The increase in the
workability of NMM was slight with an increase in NM content.
The optimum flow value was obtained at 0.25% of NM, a 36.4%
more than that of BM. Then, the table flow value of NMM
decreased and it was the same as that of BM at 1.0% of NM. In
the case of SPM, the increase in SP content increased the table flow
until the segregation occurred. Although the table flow was maxi-
mum (168% increment) with a 1.0% dosage of SP, the SPM was a lit-
tle bit segregated.
Interestingly, the test specimens of NMM prepared with 0.75%
and 1.0% NM was not hardened enough on 7 days to carry out
the strength test. It was because of the strong retarding effect
due to the presence of the higher content of sugar in NM. Thus,
those specimens were discarded. Only the test specimens of
NMM prepared with a dosage of NM up to 0.5% were used for
the 7-day and 28-day compressive strength tests. All SPM speci-
mens prepared with SP were used for the tests.
Fig. 7 shows the 28-day average densities of NNM and SPM with
the ranging content of respective admixtures.
Fig. 6. Effect of the dosage of admixture on the workability of cement mortar.
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali
The use of NM increased the hardened density of NMM. The
increment was quite small from 0% to 0.05% of NM content. How-
ever, the increment was larger from 0.05% to 0.1%. No significant
change was found from 0.1% to 0.5%. In the case of SPM, the
increase in density was smaller than that of NMM up to 0.25%.
The densities of NMM and SPM were found quite the same at
0.5%. The density of SPM was maximum at 0.75% content of SP with
a 3.1% of increment from that of BM. However, the density of SPM
was drastically decreased at 1.0% SP. The density was smaller than
that of BM by 4.7%. It was due to the segregation of cement mortar.
Table 3 shows the compressive strength (7-day and 28-day) and
splitting tensile strength (28-day) test results of BM.
The average compressive strength values of cubes in 7-day and
28-day were 15.37 MPa and 20.58 MPa with their respective STD
values of 0.44 MPa and 0.35 MPa respectively. The 28-day average
splitting tensile strength of BM was 1.24 MPa with an STD value of
0.02 MPa.
The strength data of NMM are shown in Table 4.
The compressive strengths (7-day and 28-day) and splitting
tensile strengths (28-day) of NMM were increased than that of
BM. The maximum compressive strengths of 7 days (22.7 MPa)
and 28 days (29.97) were at 0.10% of NM. At the same content of
NM, the splitting tensile strength was also maximum (2.15 MPa).
Both compressive and splitting tensile strengths were decreased
while increasing NM content beyond the optimum value. STD val-
ues for compressive strengths and tensile strengths were within
the ranges 0f 0.21–0.32 MPa and 0.02–0.04 MPa respectively.
The compressive and splitting tensile strengths test results of
SPM are summarized in Table 5.
The use of SP has also increased both the compressive and split-
ting tensile strengths of SPM. However, the content of the SP
required to give a similar level of maximum compressive strength
(7-day: 20.36 MPa and 28-day: 29.32) and splitting tensile
strength (28-day: 1.84 MPa) of SPM was significantly more
(0.75%) than that of NNM (0.1%). It was 75 times more. Similar to
NMM, the compressive and splitting tensile strengths of SPM also
started to decrease while increasing the content of the SP beyond
the optimum value of 0.75%. The STD values for the compressive
strength test results were in the range of 0.20–0.32 MPa and that
for splitting tensile strength test results were 0.03 MPa.
The average values of 7-day and 28-day compressive strength
test data are summarized in Fig. 8. The data plotted at 0% admix-
ture content is that of BM in all curves of NMM and SPM. While
increasing the content, both NMM and SPM have different trends.
However, these are the same in 7-day and 28-day results for the
same type of mortar.
The compressive strength of both 7-day and 28-day NMM stee-
ply increased when the content of the NM increased from 0.05% to
Fig. 7. Hardened densities of NMM and SPM in 28-day.
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Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355
0.10%. The 7-day average compressive strength was increased from
16.51 MPa to 22.37 MPa (35.5% increase). In 28 days, the increase
was 35.8% (from 22.07 MPa to 29.97 MPa). 0.10% content of the NM
was also the optimum which gave the maximum strength in both
7 days and 28 days. It was a 45.5% increase (from 15.37 MPa to
22.37 MPa) in 7 days and a 45.6% increase (from 20.58 MPa to
29.97 MPa) in 28 days. From the optimum level, the compressive
strength values of NMM started to decrease linearly while increas-
ing the content of NM in both 7-day and 28-day. The difference in
the workability of NMM at 0.1% and 0.25% of NM was very small
(4.0%). However, the 28-day compressive strength at 0.1% was lar-
ger. Therefore, the optimum dosage of NM was considered 0.1% for
both workability and strength.
In the case of SPM, the trends of compressive strength data
were linearly increased from its content of 0% to the optimum level
of 0.75% in both 7 days and 28 days. The maximum strengths at the
optimum level were obtained at 20.36 MPa and 29.32 MPa respec-
tively. The increase was 32.5% and 42.5% than that of BM
(15.37 MPa and 20.58 MPa) respectively. After the optimum level,
the compressive strengths of 7-day and 28-day were decreased
due to the segregation problem. The maximum strength of NMM
was slightly higher than SPM in both 7-day and 28-day.
The cracks pattern of the cubes using 0.10% NM and 0.75% after
the 28-day compressive strength tests are shown in Fig. 9. Overall,
it was judged that the crack patterns of both cubes and cylinders in
compressive strength and splitting tests respectively were random
and no significant differences were noted between the specimens
of NM and SP.
Fig. 10 shows the relation between the 28-day average splitting
tensile strength with the content of admixtures for both NM and
SP. The trend of increasing the splitting tensile strength is quite
similar to that of compressive strength for both NMM and SPM.
However, increasing the rate of splitting tensile strength, up to
the optimum dosage, was found steeper in the case of NMM than
that for SPM. The 28-day compressive strengths of both NMM
and SPM were quite similar at their respective optimum dosages.
However, the splitting tensile strength of NMM (2.75 MPa) was
increased by 12.7% to that of SPM (2.44 MPa).
The decreased pattern of workability while decreasing the w/c
ratio for both NMM and SPM is given in Fig. 11.
The table flow value of the BM was measured as 110 mm at w/
c = 0.50. The table flow values of cement mortar were 205 mm and
145 mm in the case of SPM and NMM respectively. While decreas-
ing the w/c ratio, the decrease pattern was steep in the case of SPM,
but slight for NMM. While decreasing w/c to 0.40, the workability
of NMM decreased to the level of BM (110 mm); but that of SPM
was still larger (160 mm). Its workability became the same at w/
c = 0.35.
Table 6 gives the summarized average 7-day and 28-day com-
pressive strength results.
The average 7-day compressive strengths of the NMM and SPM
were 24.42 MPa and 24.22 MPa respectively compared to
15.37 MPa of BM. The increase in strength was almost the same
(about a 58% increase) for both NMM and SPM. The average 28-
day compressive strengths of NMM and SPM were 37.57 MPa
and 37.26 MPa respectively compared to 20.58 MPa of BM. The
increase in strength was almost the same (about an 81% increase)
for both NMM and SPM. However, w/c in the case of NMM (0.40)
was higher than that of SPM (0.35). The standard deviation and
variation coefficient values of all testing results were very less than
the limit prescribed by the respective codes. It gives the validity of
the experimental and testing procedure in terms of quality control
in each step of the work process.
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

Table 3
Compressive strength and splitting tensile strength test results of BM.

w/c 7-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day splitting tensile strength (MPa)
Strength Average STD Strength Average STD Strength Average STD
0.50 15.89 15.37 0.44 20.13 20.58 0.35 1.87 1.89 0.02
15.41 20.97 1.91
14.82 20.65 1.89

Note: C: Unit cement content; w/c: Water cement ratio; STD: Standard deviation.

Table 4
Compressive strength test results of NMM.

w/c Admixture (% by C) 7-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day splitting tensile strength
(MPa)
Strength Average STD Strength Average STD Strength Average STD
0.50 0.025 15.54 15.88 0.26 21.53 21.20 0.26 2.01
15.92 21.13 2.07 2.04 0.03
16.18 20.89 2.05
0.05 16.79 16.51 0.21 22.45 22.07 0.32 2.15
16.42 22.11 2.21 2.18 0.03
16.31 21.66 2.19
0.10 22.29 22.37 0.32 30.43 29.97 0.33 2.78
22.03 29.69 2.76 2.75 0.03
22.79 29.29 2.72
0.25 20.72 21.07 0.25 27.91 28.29 0.29 2.61
21.16 28.34 2.54 2.57 0.03
21.32 28.61 2.55
0.50 17.68 18.00 0.27 24.07 23.73 0.34 2.16
18.33 23.26 2.26 2.21 0.04
17.99 23.85 2.21

Note: C: Unit cement content; w/c: Water cement ratio; STD: Standard deviation.

Table 5
Strength test results of SPM.

w/c Admixture (% by C) 7-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day splitting tensile strength
(MPa)
Strength Average STD Strength Average STD Strength Average STD
0.50 0.10 15.67 15.97 0.25 22.28 21.90 0.27 1.95
15.95 21.76 1.89 1.92 0.03
16.28 21.67 1.92
0.25 17.08 16.80 0.20 25.07 24.70 0.29 2.13
16.71 24.36 2.08 2.09 0.03
16.62 24.66 2.05
0.50 19.21 18.90 0.23 27.23 26.78 0.32 2.24
18.65 26.61 2.22 2.25 0.03
18.85 26.51 2.28
0.75 20.14 20.36 0.20 29.57 29.32 0.32 2.47
20.32 28.87 2.41 2.44 0.03
20.63 29.52 2.45
1.00 17.32 17.60 0.23 27.12 26.72 0.30 2.12
17.88 26.39 2.19 2.14 0.03
17.61 26.66 2.12

Note: C: Unit cement content; w/c: Water cement ratio; STD: Standard deviation.

3.2. Discussions
From the initial trial tests, the effect of NM was found as a high-
range retarder. It was noticed during the process of demolding and
curing test cubes. It was also verified from the initial and final set-
ting time tests. It is due to the presence of high content of sugar in
NM since no sugars were extracted from it. NM contains a high
content of both reducing sugars (glucose, maltose, lactose, and cel-
lobiose) and non-reducing sugars (sucrose, trehalose, and raffi-
nose). Non-reducing sugars like sucrose and raffinose are high-
range effective retarders due to having the most solubilizing effect
on OPC. Reducing sugars like glucose, maltose, lactose, and cel-
lobiose have a moderate effect. However, non-reducing sugars like
methyl glucoside and trehalose are non-retarders [53]. Taplin sug-
gested that the high range of set retarders, like sucrose and raffi-
nose, contain a- hydroxy-carbonyl group (HO-C–C = O) group
[70]. Then, Bruere suggested the ability of mono-saccharides and
reducing disaccharides to convert into saccharinic acids by diluting
alkali and hence adsorbing strongly onto cement particles through
the a-hydroxy-carbonyl group is the main cause for their retarding
actions [71]. It was also proposed by Milestone that the positively
charged surface of hydrating tri-calcium silicate (C3S) particles is
formed due to the absorption of sugars and sugar acids onto Ca2 +-
ions. The absorbed sugar and sugar acids poison by nucleating such
a positively charged surface resulting in the inhibition of hydration
[72].
The presence of NM was found to be a moderate water-reducing
agent in cement mortar. The result coincides with previous

6
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

Fig. 8. Average 7 and 28-day compressive strength of cement mortar.

researchers’ findings that molasses has water-reducing properties

which increase the workability at the same w/c ratio [73–74]. Fig. 10. Average 28-day splitting tensile strength results of NMM and SPM.
However, it happens to a certain optimum level of the dosage,
beyond which the viscosity of molasses obstructs the flow beha-
viour of cement mortar. It is due to water-soluble chains of viscous
compounds imbibing some of the free water in the cement paste
and increasing the plastic viscosity of the cement paste, which
increases the viscosity layer of lubricant and increases the friction
between aggregates [75]. The dosage of NM to obtain the optimum
workability was found very small in comparison with other factory
bi-product blackstrap molasses [75–76]; even SP that was used in
this work.
In the small range of NM dosage, the hardened density of
cement mortar was increased steeply while increasing its dosage.
It was up to 0.10% NM. The increment was less in the case of
increasing the content of SP. The use of NM makes the cement
paste more viscous than SP which helps to coat the sand particles
minimizing the entrapped micro-voids throughout the inter-facial
zone. The well-coated sands easily deform uniformly minimizing
the entrapped air voids while compacting. It ultimately increases Fig. 11. Decrease pattern of workability while decreasing w/c ratio.
the density.
Somawanshi et al. [57] reported that while using 0.8% (by wt. of
cement) molasses, the increments of the 28-day compressive the w/c ratio from 0.50 to 0.40. However, a similar result was
strengths were only 3.9% and 5.7% for M30 and M60 grades con- obtained while decreasing it to 0.35 with the use of SP. It supports
crete respectively [. However, the very small dosage of NM the result obtained by Oyekan that 0.1% and 0.2% sugar content
(0.10%) increased the 28-day compressive strength by 45.6%%. increased the compressive strength of sandcrete blocks at 28 days
The 28-day compressive strength was increased while reducing by 17% and 9% respectively [76]. The non-extracted sugar portion

Fig. 9. Cracks pattern of cubes after the.

7
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355

Table 6
Summarized result of compressive strength test with the same workability of mortar.

Mortar Type Admixture (% by C) w/c 7-day compressive strength (MPa) 28-day compressive strength (MPa)
Strength Average VC (%) Strength Average VC (%)
BM 0 0.50 15.89 15.37 2.85 20.13 20.58 1.68
15.41 20.97
14.82 20.65
NMM 0.10 0.40 24.77 24.42 1.14 38.14 37.57 1.10
24.09 37.17
24.39 37.41
SPM 0.75 0.35 24.61 24.22 1.19 37.76 37.26 1.00
23.92 37.14
24.13 36.87

C: Weight of cement; w/c: Water cement ratio; VC: Variation coefficient.

of NM has significantly contributed to increasing the compressive
strength while using it in a very small dosage in comparison with
the blackstrap molasses.
NM is a high-range retarder that strengthens the C-S-G gel and
ultimately increases the strength of cement paste [2,55–56]. The
reduction of compressive strength above 0.1% of NM is supported
by the previous results that the content of the viscosity agent
beyond 0.1% decreases the compressive strength [75].
The relation between the average 28-day splitting tensile
strength with compressive strength for both NMM and SPM is
given in Fig. 12. The increase in the splitting tensile strength with
the increase in compressive strength of NMM was found steeper
than that of SPM. This result reveals that the use of NM makes
the stronger inter-facial transition zone, between cement paste
and aggregate, than SP.
The generalized relationship between the splitting tensile
strength and compressive strength of concrete has still to be devel-
oped. However, many researchers have tried to establish the rela-
tionship in the case of normal and lightweight EPS mortar. They
have modeled these relationships in the form of f st ¼ aðf c Þ [77–
b increasing steeply up to an NM content of 0.05% and then
82]. Here, f st is the splitting tensile strength and f c is the compres-
sive strength. Researchers have given different values of a and b as
indicated in Table 7.
It can be checked from the figure that Gyawali model well fitted
the NMM experimental data but did not fit the SPM experimental
data. It is because the viscosity level of the NMM was similar to
that of the mortar used in Gyawali’s work [82]. He used both plas-
ticizer and viscosity agent to increase both the workability and vis-
cosity of the mortar. However, NM worked both roles of plasticizer
and viscosity agent in this study. Among other models, the model
of Nikbin and Golshekan [81] was in-between the NMM and SPM
experimental data. Other models were far away (higher: Babu
et al. [77] and Xu et al. [79]; lower: Singh et al. [80] from both
experimental data. Gyawali model [82] was modified to fit the
SPM experimental data. In the modification, the value of b was
changed from 0.75 to 0.72 and the value of a was the same.
With the use of blackstrap molasses, the ratio of splitting tensile
to compressive strength for M30 concrete was about 5.7% [58].
Kuroiwa et al. recently determined this ratio for the cement mortar
of w/c = 0.5 and C:S = 1:3 was 5.9%. They claimed that the use of
cellulose nanofibre (CNF) did not affect the splitting tensile
strength [83]. However, others have claimed that it enhances the
splitting tensile strength [84]. The ratio of splitting strength to
the compressive strength is shown in Fig. 13. The ratio went on
decreased. The ratio at this level was 9.9%, better than previous
results. However, it went on decreasing while increasing the
dosage of SP. It reveals that NM has strengthened the interfacial
zone between cement paste and aggregate resulting in the
enhancement of the splitting tensile strength than SP.

Fig. 12. Relationship between 28-day average splitting tensile strength and the compressive strength of NMM and SPM.

8
D. Prasad Acharya and T. Raj Gyawali
Table 7
Values of a and b in different modeling.
Researchers Values of a
Babu et al. 0.2416
Chen & Fang 0.3826
Xu et al. 0.3010
Singh et al. 0.2100
Nikbin and Golshekan 0.1798
Gyawali 0.2100
Fig. 13. Ratio of 28-day splitting tensile strength to compressive strength.
NM is more viscous than SP. At w/c = 0.4, the use of NM has
made the cement paste more viscous enabling the thick layer of
coating around the aggregate particles. It created a strong interfa-
cial zone around aggregates which gave higher strength. SPM was
still more workable at w/c = 0.4. At w/c = 0.35, its viscosity and
workability were similar to that of NMM at w/c = 0.4. That is the
reason for the similar strength result of SPM at a w/c = 0.35 with
that of NMM at a w/c = 0.4.
Overall, NM has an effective role as a mid-range water-
reducing, high-range retarding, and strong viscosity agent. With
the use of NM, cement content can be reduced to achieve the same
level of strength in comparison with that of SP. Its usage supports
replacing the chemicals in concrete. For sustainable development,
we should minimize the production of cement and chemicals as
less as possible. The replacement of chemical admixtures with
NM and the reduction in cement content enables the production
of environmentally friendly green concrete.
From the economic aspect, the use of NM may rationalize the
concrete production work in Nepal since it is cheaper than
imported chemical admixtures. Moreover, the result of this inves-
tigation showed that the required amount of NM to obtain the
optimum level of the physical and mechanical properties of the
cement mortar is 87% less than SP. It reveals that concrete produc-
tion with the use of NM becomes cheaper. Since a large area of land
is left uncultivated in most rural areas of Nepal, sugarcane can be
cultivated commercially to industrialize the production of NM.
With the commercialization of the NM, concrete production
becomes further cheaper. Only cement mortar was considered in
this study. However, NM also can be used for the production of
concrete since some researchers have also assessed the effective-
ness of blackstrap molasses on the properties of concrete. With
the use of NM, green concrete can be produced for the sustainable
development of the infrastructures in Nepal.
Ain Shams Engineering Journal 15 (2024) 102355
4. Conclusions
Values of b The following conclusive points are drawn from this research
0.7933 work.
0.6557
0.6840 1. NM was prepared by boiling the raw sugarcane juice for about
0.6600
five hours at a high temperature (>105 °C). It was used as an
0.7820
0.7500
admixture to assess the different properties of the cement mor-
tar. All properties were compared with the base cement mortar
as well as with the use of the commercially available
superplasticizer.
2. The increase in both dosages of NM and SP increased the setting
time. However, retarding effect of NM was higher even in the
small dosage. The optimum dosage of the NM (0.10%) was
87% less than that of SP (0.75%) to obtain the maximum work-
ability, compressive, and splitting tensile strengths of NMM and
SPM.
3. NM increased the workability and 28-day compressive strength
of the cement mortar by about 31.8% and 45.6% respectively. It
was 168% and 42.5% respectively with the use of SP.
4. NM significantly increased the splitting tensile strength of
cement mortar. It was a 45.5% and 12.7% increase from that of
BM and SPM respectively. The result supports that the use of
NM makes a stronger inter-facial zone than SP.
5. It was possible to obtain a similar level of compressive
strengths (37.6 MPa with NM and 37.3 MPa with SP) at a higher
w/c ratio with the use of NM (0.4%) than with SP (0.35%) main-
taining the same workability (Table flow value = 110 mm). It
suggests that the content of cement can be reduced to achieve
a similar level of strength.
6. NM is experimentally proven as a high-range retarding agent,
mild plasticizer, and strong viscosity agent.
7. It is possible to produce cheaper and green concrete using NM
which may support the sustainable infrastructure development
in Nepal. However, the durability properties are still to be con-
firmed in future study.
This study is only concentrated on the physical and mechanical
properties of cement mortar. Further study should address the
durability properties and should extend to assessing all physical,
mechanical, and durability properties of concrete before its imple-
mentation in the real field.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
All experimental works were carried out in the materials lab of
the School of Engineering, Pokhara University.
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