Valorization of biomass ashes in the production of cementitious composites: A comprehensive review of properties and performance

Abstract

The demand for cementitious composites as the most abundantly used construction material is increasing due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, resulting in the exploitation of natural resources. Parallel to this, the ever-increasing world population is raising the demand for agricultural products leading to various challenges in disposing of consequential agricultural waste. One of the popular methods of managing agricultural waste is incineration, resulting in the production of biomass ash, which is eventually landfilled leading to environmental pollution. The scarcity of natural resources and increasing degradation of the environment are instigating scientific investigations to explore the potential of reducing the dependence on energy- and carbon-intensive materials (such as cement) by replacing them with waste materials. Therefore, this study evaluates the influence of biomass ashes (such as rice husk ash (RHA), bamboo leaf ash (BLA), sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), wood waste ash (WWA), and palm oil fuel ash (POFA)) derived from five abundantly available agricultural waste on the performance of cementitious composites. Based on the previously published literature, the biomass ashes were characterized by analyzing their mineralogical, physiochemical, mechanical, and durability properties. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that 5–10% cement can be replaced with RHA, BLA, WWA, and POFA without any significant effect on cementitious composites’ workability, whereas the incorporation percentage for SCBA can be 5–20%. Moreover, the optimal incorporation percentage of RHA, BLA, SCBA, WWA, and POFA in cementitious composites without any negative influence on the mechanical properties is 5–15%, 5–10%, 5–30%, 5–10%, and 5–20%, respectively. It is worth noting that these replacement ratios can be further increased by subjecting biomass ashes to different pretreatment methods, such as controlled combustion and grounding. The promising findings of this study may encourage additional experimental investigations on this topic to achieve sustainable development goals in agriculture and construction industries.