Sugarmill waste in construction

Published on 03 Jul 2021. Written by Vinay Raj

Construction is a work that leads to environmental degradation that has resulted in global warming and climate change. A good example of degradation in construction work is the emission of carbon-di-oxide accounted as the 2^nd largest after electricity generation which is around about 930 million tons/year or approximately 7% of the total CO₂emissions.

To reduce the emission, the sustainable development concept is applied and it is known as green construction in that the concrete constituents are partially replaced with green or recyclable materials.

Another issue is the rising price of oil has resulted in the rise of the cost of construction material products including material such as clay brick, sand, and several other construction materials. Therefore, Green-material products will meet the challenges of economic and environmental aspects. Sugar mill waste is used in concrete to generate a lightweight and good resistance against seepage. While the use of fly ash is intended as a substitute for cement material, the use of cement in the concrete mix can be reduced. The use of fly ash is proof to increase the compressive strength of the lightweight concrete produced because it will exhibit similar properties of the cement when contact with water.

The agricultural and industrial by-products that are produced by processing of raw materials are used for economic, environmental, and technical reasons. The waste from the sugar refining industry is sugar cane bagasse which is a fibrous waste product. Sugarcane bagasse is disposed of as ash that causes serious environmental pollution, so there is a need for handling this waste.

Requirements:

Knowledge of Mix design (refer IS 10262)

Cement, Coarse and Fine Aggregate.

Sugar mill waste.

Concrete laboratory with testing apparatus such as slump cone, Compression Testing Machine, etc...

Project Implementation:

Collect the sugar mill waste and burn it to ash.
Perform mix design and find all the quantities.
Perform the workability test for the concrete.
Replace the sugar mill waste ash partially in the cement and perform workability tests.
Iterate the content of the ash in the mix until you get favorable results.
Compare the results with the natural mix.

Advantages:

Here, we are re-using the by-product from the sugar mill factory by that we are saving the natural materials and the environment up to some extent.

Software Requirements:

A graph drafting software such as MS Excel, Origin Pro, Minitab, etc. can be used to plot the graphs for different percentage of the mix of the sugar mill waste.

Conclusion:

In this project, we will be replacing the cement with sugar mill waste-based ash and thereby, we are saving some of the native cement (be partially replacing cement content) as a result CO₂emission is decreased to some extent.

Kit required to develop Sugarmill waste in construction:

Technologies you will learn by working on Sugarmill waste in construction:

Sugarmill waste in construction

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