Abstract
Kupang City in Timor Island of Indonesia, as a semiarid area, has abundant solar energy sources. Based on climatology data of Kupang City in 2013-2015, the minimum and maximum average temperatures in Kupang City range from 19.3-34.8oC. Besides, dry seasons last for about 8 months (April-November). This abundance of solar energy is a potential energy resource for the manufacturing of environmentally friendly ferrogeopolymer elements. Based on previous research, the production of geopolymer material can be done optimally with dry curing treatment at 60-80oC for less than 48 hours. Therefore, in this paper, a low-cost, energy efficient oven operated by a solar energy collector was developed. This paper describes a feasibility study of the use of solar energy for curing ferro-geopolymer elements. The ferro-geopolymer elements made were beams with length 600 mm, width 100 mm and height 100 mm. Wire meshes with 6x6mm of opening were used in 5 layers. The solar energy collector system used as an oven was a zinc coated drum which was painted black outwardly and was covered by a glass plate. Using this oven, it was possible to increase the ambient temperature by 1.62 to 2,37 times. Furthermore, this oven can also increase the flexure strength of ferrogeopolymer elements about ± 25.34%. This paper shows good potential use of solar energy in the manufacturing of ferro-geopolymer elements in the semiarid region.
Highlights
The research on geopolymer materials has shown significant improvement over the years [1,2]
According to geopolymer precast material technology, one of the reasons for the limitation of the application is the need for dry curing treatment to make optimal geopolymer precast products [2]
The flexure strength of the ferro-geopolymer element was cured inside the oven at 5.39 MPa ± 0.58 MPa
Summary
The research on geopolymer materials has shown significant improvement over the years [1,2]. The application of geopolymer material technology, either as a precast product or an in situ product, is still very limited. According to geopolymer precast material technology, one of the reasons for the limitation of the application is the need for dry curing treatment to make optimal geopolymer precast products [2]. According to previous research on geopolymer material, it was recommended that optimal dry curing was within a temperature of 60-80oC with a duration of about less than 48 hours [3,4]. It is necessary to use solar energy as sustainable energy. This is because of an abundance of solar energy in the semiarid area
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