Abstract
Fly ash (FA) and sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) are the wastes from lignite power plants and sugar industries, usually disposed of as landfills. In this research, these wastes were effectively utilized as a construction material, namely geopolymer. The effect of the SCBA (0–40 wt.%) addition to the FA geopolymers was investigated. The compressive strength of the FA geopolymers was reduced with the SCBA addition. The reduction was mainly due to the presence of the highly stable and non-reactive quartz (SiO2) phase in SCBA. The SCBA was not dissolved in the alkaline activated solution and hence did not contribute to the geopolymerization process. The unreacted SCBA particles remained in the geopolymer matrix but did not provide strength. However, if the amount of SCBA was about 10 wt.% or less, the impact on the characteristics and properties of FA geopolymers was minimal. Furthermore, this research also studied the dielectric properties of the FA geopolymer/SCBA composites. The relatively large dielectric constant (ε′ = 3.6 × 103) was found for the pristine geopolymer. The addition of SCBA decreased the ε′ slightly due to high carbon content in SCBA. Nevertheless, the variation in ε′ was mainly controlled by the geopolymerization process to form the aluminosilicate gel structure.
Highlights
The Mae Moh power plant in Lampang province is Thailand’s largest lignite electricity generating station
Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) is a residue obtained from the burning of bagasse in the sugar industry [2]
We investigated the effect of SCBA addition in fly ash (FA)-based geopolymer paste
Summary
The Mae Moh power plant in Lampang province is Thailand’s largest lignite electricity generating station. In 2019, the sugar production capacity was 14.58 million tons, which used sugarcane of 125 million tons, producing 800,000 tons of SCBA [3] Both FA and SCBA are usually disposed of as landfills. When a higher amount of SCBA was added, the mechanical properties dropped because of insufficient cement to bind aggregates and the presence of incompletely burned sugarcane bagasse and amorphous carbon in SCBA with poor strength [11,13–15]. While SCBA could improve the strength of construction materials, it could act as a dielectric material due to its high silica content. The mechanical strengths, dielectric properties, microstructure, and functional groups of the geopolymer/SCBA composites were studied and discussed. The geopolymer/SCBA composites in this work can be used as pre-formed bricks with dielectric properties that make them very useful as functional and smart construction materials
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