Strength Properties of Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) Concrete

The utilization of pozzolanic materials in concrete construction is increasing, and this trend is expected to continue in the years ahead because of technological advancement and the desire for sustainable development. One of the latest additions to this is Palm oil fuel ash (POFA), a waste material obtained from burning of palm oil husk and palm kernel shell as fuel in palm oil mill boilers, which has been identified as a good pozzolanic material. Palm oil fuel ash which contains siliceous compositions produces a stronger and denser concrete. Effective consumption of POFA in concrete, would decrease the cost of concrete production, could reduce negative environmental effect, and also would solve the landfill problem for the disposal of these wastes. In this study, the effectiveness of agro waste ash by-product namely palm oil fuel ash (POFA) was developed as an alternative material to replace OPC. POFA cement-based concrete is a concrete produced by integrating POFA as a pozzolan in concrete. This paper will discuss the strength properties of POFA concrete in different replacement level and also compares with control mixture. Concrete specimens containing 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% POFA were made at a water-cement ratio of 0.45. Strength properties such as Compressive strength, Flexural Strength and Split Tensile Strength were studied, and compared with that of concrete containing 100% OPC as control. It is revealed that POFA is an excellent pozzolanic material and can be used as an alternative cement replacement in concrete. It is recommended that the optimum replacement level of OPC by POFA is 20% for a good strength in compressive test.