Agricultural Biomass as Biomaterial Resources for Sustainable Development of Green Construction Materials

Abstract

In the Philippines, agricultural biomass is an environmental concern. Thus, we investigated the possibility of utilising agricultural biomass lignocellulosic plant fiber (LPF) in the development of green reinforced composites for concrete masonry blocks (CMB) and determined the compressive strength of CMB concerning its number of curing days. Four setups had been made with varying concentrations of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% LPF. Batch formulations for each setup were prepared by the ratio(cement: sand: rice husk ash: LPF). Three samples per mixture were tested for mechanical testing regarding its compressive strength under different crushing loads after 7, 14, and 21 curing days.AnrithmeticMean had been applied to analyse the differences in the observed results of the experimentation. The highest compressive strength of the CMB was obtained after 21 curing days with the mean values of 4.63 MPa, 4.31 MPa, 4.66 MPa, 4.77 MPa, 4.90 MPa for rice husk and 4.64 MPa, 4.31 MPa, 4.78 MPa, 4.88 MPa, and 4.99 MPa respectively for coconut fibre. Results of this study showed that the addition of LPF and the number of curing days affects the compressive strengths of the CMB. However, the addition of the LPF to the CMB should be of the same percentage of the rice husk ash as a partial replacement for sand. It was observed that rice husk ash could only be used as a supplement for cement and sand to some extent since the rice husk ash is permissible only to 15% replacement of sand aggregate.