abstract
Incorporation of biochar in cementitious materials is a promising solution in the mitigation of environmental pollutants by partially cutting off the consumed ordinary Portland cement and reducing the amount of waste disposal in landfills. This work studied the partial replacement of cement by biochars having a different chemical composition and its effect on the performance of cement mortars. The feedstocks for biochar production were selected from biomass wastes produced in agro-industrial and forestry sectors in Portugal. They included olive stone, rice husk and wood chips from residual forest biomass. Biochars were produced at 500 celcius using a slow pyrolysis process. The biochars were added at different cement replacement rates; 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 wt% of cement weight. XRD and TGA were used to elaborate the effect of biochar on the hydration products. Effect of biochar addition on the capillary water absorption, compressive and flexural strength of cement mortar was analyzed. The results suggested that the biochars contributed to the promotion of hydration products. Cement replacement with 4 wt% olive stone and rice husk biochars was associated with a slight increase of 28-days compressive strength. Rice husk biochar showed the best long-term mechanical performance due to its pozzolanic reaction in the matrix. No significant changes were observed in the water absorption of cement mortar after the addition of 4 wt% biochar as cement replacement. The research outcomes suggested the beneficial effect of cement replacement with biochars from olive stone and rice husk up to 4 wt% with comparable properties. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
keywords
CARBONATION; CONCRETE; STRENGTH
subject category
Construction & Building Technology; Engineering, Civil; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
authors
Maljaee, H; Paiva, H; Madadi, R; Tarelho, LAC; Morais, M; Ferreira, VM
our authors
Hamid Maljaee
Post-Doc Fellowship
Helena Maria da Costa Paiva
Researcher
Victor Miguel Carneiro de Sousa Ferreira
Associate Professoracknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the H2020 EU Research and Innovation programme for the funding of the Paperchain project under grant agreement n degrees 730305. Thanks are due to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Tech-nology (FCT) /Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+U IDB/50017/2020) and RISCO (FCT/UIDB/ECI/04450/2020) , through national funds.