Mix Proportion of Concrete Containing Oil Palm Wastes as Replacement for Conventional Constituents

Abstract

Oil palm waste materials which consist of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and oil palm shell (OPS) are contributing negatively towards the environment as they are normally disposed in landfills. In recent years, research studies found that POFA and OPS can be used as potential replacements for cement and coarse aggregates respectively in the effort to solve the environmental problems contributed by these wastes. In this study, POFA was used to replace ordinary Portland cement at 15% by weight of binder while OPS fully replaced the coarse aggregates to produce lightweight concrete. A suitable mix proportion for OPS concrete was determined through several trial mixes and then cement was partially replaced by POFA to produce POFA OPS concrete. The POFA OPS concrete registered density of 1870 kg/m3 which categorises it as a lightweight concrete. This concrete also produced slump value of 100 mm and compressive strength of 25.50 and 30.50 MPa at age 7 and 28 days respectively.