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Influence of coconut shell ash on workability, mechanical properties, and embodied carbon of concrete

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Abstract

The significant contribution of the carbon dioxide emission from the production of Portland cement which is the main binder used in concrete has called for an imminent need to find environmentally friendly materials as alternatives. The availability of large quantities of agricultural wastes such as coconut shell in most developing countries opens a pathway to explore how these materials can be recycled into concrete as the binder composition. The combustion of most solid agricultural wastes results in the production of ash which can be used to replace Portland cement as a binder in concrete. This paper presents the results from the experimental investigation of the effect of coconut shell ash on the workability, mechanical properties, and embodied carbon of concrete. A total of five mixtures were made with coconut shell ash replacing Portland cement up to 20%. Results from this paper showed that coconut shell ash can be incorporated into concrete mixtures to reduce its embodied carbon. A reduction in embodied carbon of about 15% was achieved when 20% of Portland cement was replaced with coconut shell ash. The incorporation of coconut shell ash into concrete mixtures also resulted in an increase in the mechanical properties up to 10% replacement of Portland cement. The compressive, tensile, and flexural strength of mixtures incorporating 10% coconut shell ash as replacement of Portland cement is 12%, 10%, and 9% higher than that of the control mixture without coconut shell ash.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Hyderabad College of Science & Technology, Hyderabad, Pakistan

    Naraindas Bheel

  2. Institute of Environmental Engineering & Management, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan

    Santosh Kumar Mahro

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada

    Adeyemi Adesina

Authors
  1. Naraindas Bheel
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  2. Santosh Kumar Mahro
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  3. Adeyemi Adesina
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Contributions

NB: visualization, experiments, analysis, and writing original drafts; SM: reviewing and editing; and AA: visualization, analysis, and reviewing final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Adeyemi Adesina.

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Bheel, N., Mahro, S.K. & Adesina, A. Influence of coconut shell ash on workability, mechanical properties, and embodied carbon of concrete. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 5682–5692 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10882-1

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