Utilization of Sugar Sediment Waste for a Low Cost Lightweight Concrete Development with Environmental Impact Reduction

Abstract

Waste sugar sediment was included in the mix of lightweight concrete. The optimum mix that we identified was 10% by weight replacement of lime by sugar sediment. The resultant product exhibited the highest compressive strength of approximately 5.5 N/mm2, and demonstrated that a substantial proportion of the 872 million kgs of waste sugar sediment produced in Thailand per year could be diverted from landfills, providing substantial economic and environmental benefits. Our analysis indicates that about 13 million kgs of lime could be replaced by an equal amount of sugar sediment, 13 million kgs, per year, if the improved composition of lightweight autoclaved aerated concrete is adopted by the construction industry on a wide scale. As the cost of lime is about 2 Baht per kg, and sugar sediment is essentially a free input, an estimated 26,000,000 Baht per year savings is achievable. The economic, environmental and health impacts of reducing this industrial waste going into landfill areas by 13 million kgs per year must also be seen as substantial.