Study on Sugarcane Bagasse Biochar in Concrete for Carbon Sequestration

Abstract

Embodied carbon from manufacturing of cement is increasing day by day as constructions are happening everywhere so the consumption of cement is increasing by default. In next decade there are much more constructions are going to takes place that will lead to Increase in GHG’s emissions from cement manufacturing. It is supposed to be a threat to climate . To reduce this increase in embodied carbon there is need to reduce cement consumption by partially replacing cement with other suitable options. biochar which is a by-product of pyrolysis of biomass and is effective in carbon sequestration activity and results in high water and carbon dioxide holding capacity. In this study Sugarcane bagasse biochar is used in concrete and mortar as partial replacement of cement for carbon sequestration. Strength characteristics of materials are supposed to be interlinked with pozzolanic activity hence pretreatment is done with 0.1 N HCl to enhance pozzolanic property activity of biochar. This pozzolanic activity is calculated by considering Ca(OH)2 fixation during the titration in chapelle test. From the study results its is observed that pretreatment with 0.1 N HCl at room temperature is sufficient to increase the pozzolanic activity of biochar also this Sugarcane bagasse biochar is observed to be sequestering carbon dioxide and it is increasing with increase in biochar. But compressive strength of concrete is decreasing with increase in sugarcane bagasse biochar. Hence it is not suitable to be used in construction work but can be used in plaster mortar where no much compressive strength is required . Sugarcane bagasse biochar can act as carbon sequestering media in concrete but it can’t be recommended in concrete or mortar for construction work.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

While working on air pollution control, the attention is always given to operational carbon , while embodied carbon is always neglected. Embodied carbon from manufacturing processes of various building materials like cement , steel, glass etc lead to impact on global air pollution. As a result we observe that 39 % of the GHG’s emissions is a embodied carbon[1]. While India is second  largest cement producing country leads  worry about  GHG’s emissions and climate change. Nearer to 8%  of total GHG’s emissions are observed to be emitted in cement production process.[2] World is in a need to reduce cement consumption as early as possible. Various replacements has been done before in various studies while in most of them  strength considerations are observed to be in reducing. Biochar  which are proved to be having carbon sequestration properties can be a better solution to this and to make building materials as a carbon sink. [3]

Biochars are considered to be having high water and carbon dioxide holding capacity[4]. Where nowadays we find biochars  are getting used in soil to enhance soil properties. Coconut shell biochar is already found to be suitable to be used as partial replacement in concrete with better strength gain and high carbon sequestration. [5]

In this study, Sugarcane bagasse biochar is considered for study and checked if it is liable to carbon sequestration with partial replacement of cement in cement mortar and cement concrete. Previously sugarcane bagasse has been used in self compacting concrete[6]. As pozzolanic property is considered to the meter of strength gain, pozzolanic property of biochar is calculated in this study also pretreatment with 0.1N, 0.5N, 1 N is done to enhance the pozzolanic activity of sugarcane bagasse biochar, respective change in pozzolanic property is observed with increase in normality and increase in temperature. And carbon sequestration is measured by MQ 135 sensors[7]  in specially prepared airtight chamber.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

A. Biochar Production

In this study Sugarcane bagasse is collected from nearer  sugarcane juice shops. Initially it is kept for drying for 2 days . then this sugarcane bagasse is shredded and converted to biochar by pyrolysis process [8] at a controlled temperature in the range of 350?C to 400?C.Biochar is then Grounded manually to the size less than 180 microns.

Conclusion

This study deals with sugarcane bagasse biochar in mortar and concrete for carbon sequestration. As in results it is found that this sugarcane bagasse is liable to carbon sequestration and can be used as enrichment in in concrete to reduce cement consumption and it can act as potential sequestration media to deal with embodied carbon and green house gas emissions . Though with pretreatment of 0.1 N HCl it is observed that pozzolanic activity is increasing but at the same time it is reducing its compressive strength of concrete with increase in biochar more than 5 % . So Sugarcane bagasse biochar can be used in concrete only for the purpose of carbon sequestration and not for strength consideration. Probably in mortars for plastering work it is considerable that too below 5 % and not more than that.

References

[1] Fang D., Brown N., De wolf C. and Mueller C, “Reducing embodied carbon in structural systems : A review of early stage design strategies” Journal of building Engineering, Elsevier, volume 76, October 2023. [2] Jr. Pelitones palcis R.,”Carbon emissions of concrete manufacturers :- Effect on climate and strategies for reduction”, Researchgate, June 2023. [3] Galina Churkina, Alan Organschi, Christopher P. O. Reyer, Andrew Ruff, Kira Vinke, Zhu Liu, Barbara K. Reck, T. E. Graedel & Hans Joachim Schellnhuber ., “Buildings as a global carbon sink ”Nature Sustainability volume 3, pages 269–276 (2020) [4] Gondim R., Celli R., Muniz C., and Calos E. “Explaining the water holding capacity of biochar by scanning electron microscope images” Researchgate, October 2018. [5] Nair J.,Shika S., and Sreedharan V., “Biochar amended concrete for carbon sequestration”International conference on Materials , mechanics and structures 2020. [6] Wagh M., Waghe U., “Development of self compacting concrete blended with sugarcane bagasse ash” ScienceDirect, Volume 60, part 3, 2022. [7] Neamah F., Intisar M. and Zainab K., “ Capable of gas sensor MQ-135 to monitor the air quality with Arduino Uno” International journal of Engineering , research and technology, November 2020. [8] Elkhalifa S,., Alansari T., and Mackey H., “Food waste to biochars through pyrolysis: A review” Elsevier, Resources, conservation and recycling . volume 144, May 2019. [9] Zeidabadi Z A, Bhakhtiari S, Abbaslou H and Ghanizadeh A R 2018 Synthesis characterization and evaluation of biochar from agricultural waste biomass for use in building materials Construction and Building Material [10] IS 4031- 1988 ( part 6) “Methods of physical tests for hydraulic cement”. [11] IS 516- 1959 (Reaffirmed 2004) “Methods of tests for strength of concrete”.

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 Vikram R. Tirpude. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.