Enhancing material properties of agro-industrial waste sugarcane bagasse ash—Way towards sustainable development

Abstract

The present study deals with a comprehensive characterization of Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) and its effect on pozzolanic reactivity. Utilizing SCBA as pozzolanic material reduces the ash disposal problem and enhance the properties of cementitious composites. The ash is pre-treated by two methods: sieving followed by incineration; and incineration followed by ball mill grinding inorder to increase the fineness or specific surface area, reduce loss on ignition and increase amorphous reactivity of sugarcane bagasse ash. The first method is energy intensive method, as the duration of sieving is only 15 min and incinerated at lowest temperature of 400 °C. The second method is a selective pre-treatment method, where incineration is done first to reduce LOI, followed by grinding for 60,120 and 180 min. The effect of processing methodology is studied by considering energy consumption, enhanced particle morphology of SCBA and pozzolanic reactivity of SCBA. The physio-chemical characterization is done by standard American, Indian codes. Enhanced micro-structural characterization is done by Lazer particle size analyzer, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) test associated with Electro Dispersion Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) test, Thermo-gravimetric (TGA) studies. Further, the treated ash is tested for its pozzolanic reactivity by strength activity index and Frattini test. It is observed that sieving has consumed less energy of 11.5 kWh/t compared to grinding. However, the samples sieved couldn't perform well in pozzolanic reactivity due to the inert silica present in it. The particle morphology is enhanced compared to raw SCBA. SCBA samples incinerated and grinded have shown a maximum strength activity index of 82.99 % and 92.6 % with an energy consumption of 30.4 kWh/t and 45.6 kWh/t for grinding. The Frattini test results are in co-relation with strength activity index with a factor of 80.52.