Harvest Residues Ash and Ceramic Powder as Pozzolanic Materials for Developing Sustainable Building Materials

As the global population increases, a large amount of solid waste generates along, occupying large landfill sites for its disposal. Conversion of this waste into other alternative resources will reduce the load on non-renewable building materials and help in solving the landfilling problem. Incorporating mainstream wastes, such as: fly ash, blast furnace slag, rice husk ash, recycled aggregate and bricks in mortar or concrete has become one of the green ways to deal with waste from the agriculture and industry. Maintaining sustainability at the centre of this paper, two types of waste materials have been selected for the study. First is ceramic waste powder obtained from broken or distorted ceramic waste products, and the second is harvest residues ash from the agricultural biomass combustion. The present study aims at evaluating basic chemical, physical and pozzolanic properties of collected cement-alternative materials - phase 1 and testing mechanical and durability properties of concrete (compressive strength, water impermeability and wear resistance) produced with high share of these wastes. The results indicate that optimal types of industrial and agricultural waste materials can be effectively used in the concrete industry as cement substitutes up to the 50% replacement level, while maintaining satisfying concrete’s performance and meeting the principles of sustainable development.