Investigation of Catalyzed Biomass Thermoelectric Concrete with Palm Oil Fuel Ash

Abstract

Numerous studies have focused on promoting sustainability using renewable resources across various industries. This is especially important in the construction industry where the production process of concrete serves as a challenge to the global environment especially since its major component, cement, contributes largely to the harmful environmental effects through the emission of CO₂. Thus, there is a need for new breakthrough in concrete manufacturing, with hopes to incorporate a more environmentally friendly perspective with partial cement replacement to enhance the concrete’s properties and reduce in environmental pollution. This study builds on the idea of reconciling two pre-existing research by mixing palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as partial cement replacement and chemicals which serve as a catalyst for electricity generation, without effecting the strength of the structure. It aims to investigate the effect of POFA on the strength of concrete as well as ability to generate electricity under different scenarios of surrounding temperature. The volume of the chemicals were set fixed and biomass-cement content was make varied throughout the study with a 5% increment starting from 5 to 25%. The size of sample concrete in the study was kept constant at 50 mm ╳ 50 mm ╳ 20 mm for voltage testing while for compressive strength test, it was conducted on a concrete specimen sized 150 mm ╳ 150 mm ╳ 150 mm. The experiment had successfully shown that POFA as a partial cement replacement has reflected positively. Higher POFA content in concrete improved its ability to generate electricity in all surrounding temperatures as observed from increased voltage readings at higher POFA content. An interesting outcome was that at higher temperatures, the electricity generating ability also increased for all POFA content. 5% POFA reflected an increase from 64 to 222 mV (an increase of 246%) when temperature is increased from 0 to 100 °C. As for 25% POFA, voltage readings increased from 111 to 375 mV, reflecting an increase of 238%. This experiment also reinforced our belief that the incorporation of POFA in cement has the ability to generate electricity while maintaining a reasonable strength.