Sustainable clean pervious concrete pavement production incorporating palm oil fuel ash as cement replacement

Abstract

The significant increase in global urban population and rapid growth of impervious urban surfaces result in erosion of stream channels, flooding, and damage to stormwater infrastructures. The aim of this research was to study pervious concrete pavement as a sustainable solution to control the stormwater at source, reducing heat island effect and enhancing safety of driving. The sustainability of pervious concrete can be increased and the carbon dioxide emissions reduced by replacing a huge amount of ordinary Portland cement with waste materials such as palm oil fuel ash. Palm oil fuel ash is a waste material obtained from the combustion of oil palm shells and fibers in palm oil industry to produce electricity, which caused environmental problems in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. This study presented experimental investigations to assess the substitution of control pervious concrete with palm oil fuel ash up to 40% (by mass) to produce sustainable and eco-friendly pervious concrete pavement. Density and void content of specimens were determined at fresh and hardened-state. Falling head permeability test was carried out to investigate the stormwater filtration capacity. Compressive and tensile strengths were conducted on pervious concrete specimens. Skid and abrasion resistances were also employed to evaluate the effects of palm oil fuel ash on safety of driving and surface durability of the pervious concrete pavement. The results showed that void content and water permeability of pervious concrete increased slightly with increasing palm oil fuel ash, while compressive and tensile strengths decreased. They satisfy the typical range for pervious concrete according to American Concrete Institute. A minor effect of palm oil fuel ash on the skid resistance was observed, increasing its substitution levels caused the abrasion resistance of pervious concrete mixtures to decrease. The heavy metal concentrations in leachates of the pervious concrete containing 40% palm oil fuel ash were significantly lower than recommended in the standard. The pervious concrete containing 20% palm oil fuel ash presented the most optimum mixture both technically and environmentally.