Investigation on Feasibility of Utilizing Coffee-Husk Ash as an Alkaline Activator in Geopolymer Concrete

Department of Civil Engineering, Mangalam College of Engineering, Kottayam-686631, Kerala, India

^* Corresponding author: arunapcivil@gmail.com

Abstract

Cement production is the major source of global warming which induces 7% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the use of cement in construction industry needs to be adopted by any of the alternates. One of the best alternates to reduce the impact caused by the cement production process is geopolymer concrete which can completely replace the usage of cement. Geopolymer is trending technology which possess numerous advantages than ordinary Portland cement concrete technology. Geopolymer is produced by the mixing of solid precursor and monomer. Most widely used solid precursors are waste industrial byproducts such as fly ash, GGBS, metakaolin etc., and monomers are alkaline activators like sodium hydroxide and Na2SiO3. Meanwhile, the properties of geopolymer concrete are decided by the various parameters such as quantity of aluminosilicate source in precursor, ratio of NaO/SiO2, SiO2/Al2O3, NaOH/NaSiO3, solution to binder ratio, concentration of NaOH etc., The alkaline activators mostly used are chemical activators which is harmful to humans. Hence, there is a need of finding an alternate for chemical activators in the geopolymer concrete. In this proposed methodology, the chemical alkaline activators have been completely replaced by the waste residue product named coffee husk. Coffee husk is a residue produced from the coffee powder production industry. A total of 18.29 MMT of coffee husk ash has been produced every year. Coffee husk has an inbuilt composition of potassium which is one of the alkaline activators. However, the coffee husk ash needs to be calcinated by the use of oven before to use. In this research, an attempt has been made to utilize the Coffee husk ash (CA), as an alkaline activator and efficient activation mechanism of CA will be examined.