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Journal of Cleaner Production 117 (2016) 122e138

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ jc lepro

Review

Green concrete partially comprised of farming waste residues: areview

Kim Hung Mo*, U. Johnson Alengaram**, Mohd Zamin Jumaat, Soon Poh Yap,Siew Cheng LeeDepartment of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 16 July 2015Received in revised form17 December 2015Accepted 9 January 2016Available online 15 January 2016

Keywords:Farming wasteAgricultureAquacultureConcrete

Abbreviations: BMBLF, bamboo leaf ash; BNNLA, baslag; LOI, loss on ignition; MOE, modulus of elasticisupplementary cementitious material; WSA, wheat s* Corresponding author.** Corresponding author.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K.H. M

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.0220959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t

The growing demand of construction around the world has led to the increased usage of concrete.However, conventional concrete-making materials are not entirely environmental-friendly and this hasenthused research on seeking greener alternative for concrete production. In the past, extensive researchworks had been carried out to utilize farming waste materials such as those from palm oil, coconut,sugarcane as well as the paddy industry and these findings indicate potential of utilizing such materialsin concrete. The re-use of the farming waste materials in concrete could reduce the dependency onconventional concrete-making material as well as minimizing the negative impact on the environmentbesides ensuring waste conservation and reduction in waste disposal from these sectors. In this paper, areview on the utilization of emerging alternative farming waste materials in concrete such as from thefarming of bamboo, corn, wheat, olive, sisal, seashells and more is carried out with the aim of examiningthe benefits and shortcomings of using these materials. This review shows the possible usage of farmingwaste materials in different form in concrete, such as partial cement and aggregate replacement, as wellas fibre reinforcement. The main finding from the paper is that although usage of farming waste ma-terials resulted in lowering of some concrete properties, appropriate treatment methods and selection ofthe waste materials would enable the production of concrete with improved performance. The summaryand discussion provided in this paper should provide new information and knowledge on a greatervariety of farming waste materials which are suitable to be used for the production of a greener andsustainable concrete.

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232. Agriculture-farming waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

2.1. Bamboo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232.2. Wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1242.3. Barley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1262.4. Corn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1272.5. Olive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1282.6. Banana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1282.7. Sisal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292.8. Date palm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302.9. Elephant grass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

nana leaf ash; CCA, corn cob ash; DPF, date palm fibre; EGA, elephant grass ash; GGBS, ground granulated blast furnacety; MS, mussel shell; OS, oyster shell; OWA, olive waste ash; PS, periwinkle shell; PSA, periwinkle shell ash; SCM,traw ash.

o), [email protected] (U.J. Alengaram).

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K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 117 (2016) 122e138 123

3. Aquaculture-farming waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1313.1. Oyster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1313.2. Periwinkle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1333.3. Mussel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1355. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

1. Introduction

Due to the increasing usage of concrete in the construction in-dustry around the world, there is a growing demand for producinggreener concrete. One of the primary reasons for this is attributedto the negative environmental impact brought upon by the use ofconcrete-making materials, such as aggregates and cement.Excessive usage of aggregates causes depletion of these naturalresources, and inconsiderate quarrying and mining activities toextract these materials could lead to environmental issues, such asdamage to landscape and disruption of eco-system, water, soil andair contamination (Blankendaal et al., 2014). In addition, the pro-cess of cement-manufacturing is an energy-extensive process, andmost importantly, results in the emission of greenhouse gases.According to Gao et al. (2015), the cement industry alone wasestimated to be responsible for about 1.8 Gt of carbon dioxide (CO2)emission annually and approximately 5e7% of all anthropogenicCO2 generated. Life cycle analysis has shown that about 0.8 t of CO2

was emitted in the production of 1 t of cement (Flower andSanjayan, 2007).

In an effort to preserve the environment through the develop-ment of green concrete, researchers have explored the possibility ofutilizing industrial by-products and waste materials in concrete.Industrial by-products such as bottom ash (Zhang and Poon, 2015;Singh and Siddique, 2015), slag (Mo et al., 2015) and fly ash (Zhaoet al., 2015) have been consistently used throughout the world.While the use of industrial by-products in concrete has been well-established, the incorporation of waste material for concrete pro-duction is still very much in research stage, and in particular wastematerial from the agriculture industry. Wastes from the agricultureindustry are usually either burnt or land-filled (Karade, 2010) andthese cause environmental issues such as pollution and contami-nation. Realizing the potential environmental conservation whichcould be achieved, research works have been conducted over theyears to re-use farming waste from the agriculture industry toproduce concrete. For instance, among the most recognizedresearched agriculture waste for concrete production include thosefrom the palm oil industry such as waste oil palm shell (Shafighet al., 2014) and palm oil fuel ash (Safiuddin et al., 2011), coconutindustry such as waste coconut shell (Mo et al., 2014) and coconutfibres (Pacheco-Torgal and Jalali, 2011) as well as the paddy in-dustry through the use of waste rice husk (Aprianti et al., 2015).These agriculture waste materials were used in the form of aggre-gate, fibre reinforcement as well as supplementary cementitiousmaterial (SCM) in concrete manufacturing.

Recently, there is an emerging trend in utilizing alternativefarming waste materials for concrete, such as those from agricul-ture (bamboo, banana, corn, wheat, sisal, grass etc.) (Pappu et al.,2007; Karade, 2010) as well as aquaculture farming, whichinclude oyster, cockle, clam and periwinkle (Prusty and Patro,2015). Commonly, researchers have utilized agricultural farmingresidues as partial cement replacement material in concrete. This is

because plants obtain various minerals and silicates from earthduring the growth process; inorganic materials, especially silicatesare found to be high in annually grown plants than in long-livedtrees (Biricik et al., 1999) and this allows the plants residues to bea potential source of cement replacement material with pozzolanicreactivity. Another common usage of the farming wastes is as fibrereinforcement to strengthen the resulting concrete composite. Thepotential utilization of natural fibres is due to: i) lower cost, ii)require lower degree of industrialization, iii) environmental-friendly and most importantly, iv) natural fibres are as strong assynthetic fibres (Pacheco-Torgal and Jalali, 2011). Besides that, in aneffort to preserve the environment, some of these farming wastematerials were utilized as partial aggregate replacement in con-crete to reduce the dependency on conventional aggregates such asgranite, gravel and natural mining sand (Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul,2002; Binici et al., 2008; Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid, 2010).Therefore, in this review, focus will be given on the compilation andanalysis of the findings obtained previously when farming wasteresidues (from agriculture and aquaculture farming) were utilizedin concrete. Understanding of the common behaviours of suchwaste materials, such as their benefits and drawbacks in concrete,could provide a basis for future development of an environmental-friendly concrete which incorporates farming waste materials.

2. Agriculture-farming waste

Agriculture farming is one of themajor industry globally as mostof the harvested agricultural products are sources of food of peoplearound the world. Countries such as China, India, United States,Brazil and Nigeria are among the world's largest producer of agri-culture products, which include cereal, vegetable, fruits etc(Simpson, 2015). However, after harvesting and consumption of theagricultural products, there are abundance of waste materials left-over, such as leaf, straw, stalk and ash. Most of these agriculturewastes are disposed to the surrounding and there is little effort inre-using these materials. In recent times, researchers have begun toutilize these wastes as partial replacement for conventionalconcrete-making materials and came up with interesting findings.While the use of agriculture wastes in concrete such as those frompalm oil, coconut, sugarcane and paddy industry were well-documented in the past, this section deals with the review ofemerging research works on alternative agriculture residues, suchas those from bamboo, wheat, olive and other agricultural sectors.

2.1. Bamboo

Bamboo is the fastest-growing and highest yielding naturalresource and construction material available to mankind. Over thelast two decades, researchers have identified bamboo as a viablealternative for construction material due to its favourable me-chanical properties, high flexibility and low costs (van der Lugtet al., 2006). It has been shown that bamboo could be utilized in

K.H. Mo et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 117 (2016) 122e138124

structural members such as beam, column and slab (Agarwal et al.,2014). The annual production of bamboos all over the world isabout 20 mil t, mainly in Asia and Latin America (Dwivedi et al.,2006; Frias et al., 2012) and this results in huge amount of agri-cultural wastes from the bamboo sector. These agriculture wastesare often burned in open landfills and thus causes environmentalpollution (Villar-Cocina et al., 2011). While the use of bamboo asreinforcement is common, the re-use of the waste generated suchas bamboo leaf ash and fibre in concrete is gaining attention inrecent times.

Bamboo leaf ash (BMBLF) is obtained by burning and heatingdry bamboo leaves at calcining temperature of 600 �C for a periodof about 2 h (Dwivedi et al., 2006; Singh et al., 2007; Villar-Cocinaet al., 2011). The resulting BMBLF (Fig. 1) is grey in colour and themajor constituent is SiO2 (about 80% of the total oxide composi-tion), indicating great potential as pozzolanic material. The oxidecomposition and the physical properties of the BMBLF are pre-sented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Pozzolanic reactivity studiesrevealed that the BMBLF had high reactivity at early ages (Villar-Cocina et al., 2011) with similar pozzolanic behaviour as silicafume (Frias et al., 2012) and the pozzolanic reactivity increasedwith time and temperature (Dwivedi et al., 2006; Singh et al.,2007). Besides that, based on the kinetic-diffusive model to deter-mine the pozzolanic reaction kinetics, it was reported that thereactivity of BMBLF was one order magnitude greater than ricehusk ash and two orders greater than sugarcane bagasse ash (Friaset al., 2012). In the rheological study carried out by Frias et al.(2012), when the BMBLF was used as cement replacement by 10%and 20%, thewater demandwas increased by up to 46% while slightdelay in the setting time of cement paste was also noticed in thepresence of 20% BMBLF replacement level. The increase in waterdemand for BMBLF-blended concrete was also reported by Umohand Odesola (2015) to achieve similar consistency as the controlconcrete. In terms of the compressive strength development ofconcrete containing 10% and 20% BMBLF, Frias et al. (2012) reportedslight decrease in the compressive strength at the age of 7 dcompared to the reference concrete and due to the pozzolanic re-action, the increase in the hydration time resulted in similarcompressive strength of both types of concrete. On the other hand,Umoh and Odesola (2015) observed higher compressive strengthsof BMBLF-blended concrete at the age of 28 d at replacement levelsof 5% and 10%. Also, it was reported that the 28-d water absorptionand porosity of the concrete containing BMBLF were higher thanthe control concrete.

Apart from the leaf ash waste, another waste from the bamboosector which was utilized in concrete is the bamboo fibres. Prop-erties of the bamboo fibres are summarized in Table 3. Xie et al.

Fig. 1. Appearance of bamboo leaf ash used by Villar-Cocina et al. (2011) as SCM.

(2015) reported that the use of bamboo fibres contributed toincreased water demand of cement paste due to the water ab-sorption of the fibre nodules. Researchers agreed that the waterabsorption and apparent void were increased at higher bamboofibre content in cementebamboo fibre composite (Correia et al.,2014; Xie et al., 2015) and this was attributed to the hydrophilicof the bamboo fibres which promoted the formation of inter-connected capillary pores. Apart from that, the void volume andwater absorption values were increased due to the less efficientpacking as the fibre volume was increased (Correia et al., 2014).However, at later ages, these properties were found to reduce dueto the filling of voids with hydration products and carbonation(Correia et al., 2014; Xie et al., 2015). Because of the higher voidspresent at earlier ages and difficulty in fibre distribution, the me-chanical performance such as flexural strength and modulus ofelasticity (MOE)were decreased. Nevertheless, the toughness of thecementebamboo fibre composite was found to be significantlyincreased with increased bamboo fibres, which was characterizedby the strain hardening behaviour after the occurrence of initialcracking in flexural test specimens (Correia et al., 2014). Theimproved toughness due to the addition of bamboo fibres wasattributed to the fibre bridging effect (Xie et al., 2015). Xie et al.(2015) also observed that excessive addition of fibres wouldresult in fibre balling which could significantly reduce the positiveeffects of toughness improvement. However, it is interesting to notethat at later ages, the toughness of cementebamboo fibre com-posite was reduced as the composite became stiffer and morebrittle due to the deposition of calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) crys-tals on the fibre surface (Xie et al., 2015). In addition, the impactstrength of bamboo-fibre reinforced concrete was improved by upto 20% while the integrity of the specimen was maintainedcompared to the total shattering of plain concrete specimen(Ramaswamy et al., 1983).

2.2. Wheat

Wheat is grown to produce cereal as source of food around theworld and wheat plant is commonly grown on volcanic areas, hillslopes and bare lands at various climates. It is estimated that out oftheworld's annual cereal production of 880mil t, 550mil t is wheatstraw (Biricik et al., 1999). Wheat straw waste is one of the majorby-product from cereal production and farmers commonly burn itin open area, resulting in environmental pollution (Binici andAksogan, 2011). However, when the wheat straw waste is prop-erly incinerated and ground, a pozzolanic material termed as wheatstraw ash (WSA) could be produced and this material could beutilized as SCM in concrete.

Generally, the resultant WSA has high amount of silica as well ashigher fineness compared to cement and therefore the WSA is apotential source of SCM for concrete (Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul,2002). The general chemical and physical properties of WSA arelisted in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. However, depending on theincineration procedure, the obtained WSA could have varyingchemical properties. Biricik et al. (1999) observed that the suitableburning temperature for WSA was between 570 and 670 �C for aperiod of 5 h whereby the grey and white colour of the ash indi-cated complete burning of the ash. This range of burning temper-ature for WSA was also agreed upon by other researchers (Biriciket al., 2000; Binici et al., 2008; Ataie and Riding, 2013). On theother hand, Al-Akhras (2013) subjected the WSA to burning attemperature of 900 �C for a period of 6 h and obtained a black-coloured WSA. Ataie and Riding (2013) reported that thermo-chemical pre-treatment on theWSA increased the amorphous silicacontent and surface area while at the same time decreased the losson ignition (LOI) of the ash. Furthermore, pre-treated WSA was

Table 1Selected oxide composition of agricultural farming waste ashes used.

Reference Type of SCM Selected oxide composition (%)

SiO2 CaO Al2O3 Fe2O3 Na2O MgO K2O LOI

Dwivedi et al. (2006) Bamboo leaf ash 72.3e80.4 4.2e7.8 1.0e4.1 0.5e2.0 0.1e0.2 1.0e1.9 1.3e5.6 2.9e8.0Singh et al. (2007)Villar-Cocina et al. (2011)Frias et al. (2012)Umoh and Odesola (2015)

Biricik et al. (1999) Wheat straw ash 4.9e87.9 9.4e24.4 0.1e4.6 0.1e1.3 0.1e5.4 0.6e4.6 0.7e24.7 1.1e29.0Biricik et al. (2000)Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul (2002)Binici et al. (2008)Al-Akhras (2011)Al-Akhras (2013)

Cobreros et al. (2015) Barley straw ash 21.2 10.0 2.8 3.5 4.1 e 38.0 e

Binici et al. (2008) Corn cob ash 37.0e66.4 11.6e13.0 2.4e7.5 1.2e4.4 0.3e0.4 2.1e7.4 4.9e15.0 22.5Adesanya and Raheem (2009a)Adesanya and Raheem (2009b)

Al-Akhras et al. (2009) Olive waste ash 11.8e25.8 42.4e54.8 2.6e8.5 1.4e5.7 0.2e0.5 3.2e4.4 0.3e9.3 9.5e11.7Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid (2010)Cuenca et al. (2013)

Kanning et al. (2014) Banana leaf ash 48.7 e 2.6 1.4 0.2 e e 5.1

Cordeiro and Sales (2015) Elephant grass ash 56.2e67.8 0e2.6 22.1e23.1 4.0e6.1 e e 2.0e7.4 2.6e4.4

Table 2Physical properties of agricultural farming waste ashes used.

Reference Type of SCM Physical properties

Specificgravity

BET specificsurface area (m2/g)

Blaine's specificsurface area (cm2/g)

Pozzolanic activityindex (%)

Chapelle pozzolanicactivity (mg/g)

Umoh and Odesola (2015) Bamboo leaf ash 2.64 e e e e

Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul (2002) Wheat straw ash 1.97e2.89 8.3e168 4300e5520 e e

Binici et al. (2008)Al-Akhras (2011)Ataie and Riding (2013)Al-Akhras (2013)

Binici et al. (2008) Corn cob ash 2.97 e e e e

Al-Akhras et al. (2009) Olive waste ash 2.13 e 4100e4200 e e

Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid (2010)

Kanning et al. (2014) Banana leaf ash 2.44 e 14,000 e 422

Cordeiro and Sales (2015) Elephant grass ash 2.52e2.63 42.1e72.6 e 95e108 883e998

Table 3Chemical and morphological characteristics of natural fibres used.

Reference Fibre Chemical and morphological characteristics

Lignin (%) Extractives (%) Cellulose (%) Hemicellulose (%) Length (mm) Width (mm) Aspect ratio

Correia et al. (2014) Bamboo 14.4 1.5 76.0 8.8 0.8e2.5 0.020 40.4e190Xie et al. (2015)

Jarabo et al. (2013) Corn stalk e e e e 0.7e0.9 0.023e0.029 e

Merta and Tschegg (2013) Wheat straw e e e e 40 e e

Belhadj et al. (2014) Barley straw 15.8 e 37.6 34.9 35 e e

Kriker et al. (2005) Date palm e e e e 2.5e60 e e

Kriker et al. (2008)

Savastano and Agopyan (1999) Sisal 3.8e20.5 e 33.2e88.0 10.0e26.0 20e25 e e

Filho et al. (2003)Ramakrishna and

Sundararajan (2005a,b)Silva et al. (2010)

Merta and Tschegg (2013) Elephant grass e e e e 40 e e



found to accelerate cement hydration in contrast to non-pre-treated WSA which retarded the cement hydration. This resultedin a 32% increase in the 28-d compressive strength compared to thecorresponding concrete mortar with non-pre-treated WSA (Ataieand Riding, 2013).

The potential of WSA as SCM in concrete was reflected in theincreased compressive strength of mortar by about 25% whenWSAwas utilized at a cement replacement level of 20% (Ataie and Riding,2013). On the other hand, Biricik et al. (2000) found that when 8%WSA was used, the compressive strength only reached thecompressive strength of control concrete without WSA after 180 dand this was attributed to the slow pozzolanic reaction which tookplace. Conversely, the 28-d flexural strength of concrete was foundto be improved in the presence of up to 16% WSA (Biricik et al.,2000). Due to the importance of concrete durability, researchersalso focused on the investigation of the durability properties ofconcrete incorporating WSA as partial cement replacement. Biriciket al. (2000) found beneficial effects of WSA replacement up to 24%on the compressive strength of concrete when exposed to sodiumsulphate solution whereas the WSA replacement level of up to 8%gave improved performance of concrete exposed to magnesiumsulphate solution. Al-Akhras (2011) reported better freezeethawresistance of WSA-blended concrete compared to the control con-crete and the increased WSA replacement level from 5% to 15%enhanced the freezeethaw resistance of concrete. In addition,similarly, the resistance of WSA-blended concrete towards alkali-silica reaction deterioration was higher compared to the corre-sponding control concrete without WSA (Al-Akhras, 2013) andincreased WSA content to 15% resulted in greater resistance to-wards alkali-silica reaction. The beneficial effect of WSA towardsalkali-silica deterioration was found to be more pronounced inconcrete mixture with lower water-to-binder (w/b) ratio (Al-Akhras, 2013). The improved durability of concrete containingWSA towards freezeethaw and alkali-silica reaction was attributedto the pozzolanic reaction and filler effect of WSAwhich refined thecapillary pores within the cement matrix.

Researchers also explored the possibility of utilizing WSA aspartial replacement for fine aggregate in concrete. When the WSAwas used as partial replacement by up to 10.9%, the workability ofthe fresh concrete was reduced due to the higher fineness of WSAwhich increased the water demand to wet the surface of the WSAparticles (Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul, 2002). Besides that, the settingtime of fresh concretewas increased by up to 92% in the presence ofWSA at 10.9% fine aggregate replacement level (Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul, 2002). In terms of strength properties, when mixed withlimestone fine aggregate, the use of up to 10.9% WSA enhanced the

Table 4Properties of natural fibres used.

Reference Fibre Physical properties

Bulk density(kg/m3)

Moisturecontent (%)

Merta and Tschegg (2013) Wheat straw e e

Belhadj et al. (2014) Barley straw e e

Kriker et al. (2005) Date palm 900 10.0Kriker et al. (2008)

Savastano and Agopyan (1999) Sisal 900 10.4e13.3Filho et al. (2003)Filho et al. (2005)Agopyan et al. (2005)Silva et al. (2011)Wei and Meyer (2014)

Merta and Tschegg (2013) Elephant grass e e

compressive, tensile and flexural strengths of autoclaved concreteby up to 87%, 67% and 71%, respectively (Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul,2002). Similarly, as reported by Binici et al. (2008), the compressivestrength of WSA concrete (up to 6% fine aggregate replacement)was higher than the control concrete after 28 d, even though the 7-d compressive strength was similar. Based on the durability prop-erties of WSA concrete investigated, Binici et al. (2008) concludedthat the inclusion of WSA as partial fine aggregate replacement ofup to 6% resulted in excellent durability of the concrete. It wasfound that the sulphate resistance, resistance towards waterpenetration and abrasion resistance were enhanced as the WSAwas added in concrete due to the denser pore structure of theconcrete as the WSA filled the pores in the concrete system (Biniciet al., 2008). When concrete was subjected to thermal cycling, thereduction in compressive strength was lower for the WSA concretecompared to control concrete, and this indicated better responsetowards thermal cycling especially when the WSA fine aggregatereplacement level was increased to 15% (Al-Akhras et al., 2008). Thecracks caused by thermal cycling occurred in the concrete muchlater in the presence of WSA and the higher electrical resistivity ofthe WSA-blended concrete explained the increased resistance ofthe concrete towards elevated temperature (Al-Akhras et al., 2008).

Merta and Tschegg (2013) examined the utilization of wheatstraw as fibre reinforcement in concrete and the performance of thewheat straw fibre was compared to those of hemp fibre. The tensilestrength of the wheat straw fibre was about 40 MPa (Table 4), ascompared to 600e700 MPa for hemp fibres. Compared to the hempfibre reinforced concrete, the wheat straw fibre showed minimalimprovement in the fracture energy with about 2% increase wasfound. This was attributed to the rough surface of the wheat strawfibre which promoted good bond exist between the fibre andcement matrix and in combination with the low tensile strength ofthe fibre, the failure of the concrete was characterized by rupture ofthe fibre rather than pulling-out of fibre (Merta and Tschegg, 2013).

2.3. Barley

Similar to wheat, barley is also one of the major cereal productsafter corn, rice and wheat. Currently, barley straws are excessivelyproduced compared to their use (Belhadj et al., 2014). Similar toWSA, barley straw ash (BSA) could also be produced from wastebarley straw and the resulting BSA is another potential pozzolanicmaterial for concrete. However, there is limited research carried outon the utilization of BSA as SCM. Generally, BSA has high contents ofsilica and potassium (Table 1); however, BSA has slightly lowersilica content at 21% compared to WSA (Cobreros et al., 2015). Due

Water absorptionafter 5 min (%)

Water absorption tosaturation (%)

Tensile strength(MPa)

MOE (GPa)

e e 40 e

e e 115 9.92

74.0 132.5e241.0 170e300 3.25e5.25

82.0e89.3 110.0e240.0 137e577 15.2e34.0

e e 40e60 e

Fig. 2. Appearance of barley straw fibre used in the investigation by Belhadj et al.(2014).


to the presence of potassium chloride (KCl), the pozzolanic activityof BSA could be lower compared to conventional pozzolans such asfly ash and this resulted in little difference between its 7-d and 28-d compressive strength (Cobreros et al., 2015).

Barley straw fibre (Fig. 2) with tensile strength of about 115 MPaandMOE of about 10 GPa (Table 4) was used by Belhadj et al. (2014)to substitute wood shavings in lightweight sand concrete. Thefindings revealed that the inclusion of barley straw fibre in sandconcrete resulted in improved thermal diffusivity by up to 35% andenhanced toughness as well as compressive strength of theconcrete.

2.4. Corn

Corn is the most produced cereal worldwide, surpassing wheatand rice (Jarabo et al., 2013). Corn cob is an agricultural wasteproduct from waize or corn and is known to contain considerableamount of silica (Binici and Aksogan, 2011). Once the corn cobwaste is burned, it produces corn cob ash (CCA) which is pozzo-lanic in character. Temperature of lower than 700 �C is required inorder to obtain reactive amorphous silica of the CCA (Binici et al.,2008). According to some studies, the amount of silica containedin CCA was about 37e66% (Binici et al., 2008; Adesanya andRaheem, 2009a) (Table 1). When up to 25% CCA was blended

Fig. 3. Appearance of granulated corn cob (right) from

with cement, Adesanya and Raheem (2009b) found that the LOI ofthe blended cement increased due to the increase in organiccontent, which had negative effect on the binding properties ofcement. Apart from that, while the consistency of the blendedcement was decreased, the soundness and setting times of theblended cement were increased. The increased setting time wasattributed to the CCA which reduced the surface area of cementand hence delayed the hydration process (Adesanya and Raheem,2009b). Similarly, the workability (slump and compacting factor)was reduced when the CCA content was increased and this wasdue to the increased water demand in the fresh concrete. In termsof the compressive strength development, generally the concreteblended with CCA behaved similarly with conventional SCM,whereby the early strength was low but exhibited increasedstrength gain at later ages due to the pozzolanic reaction of theCCA (Adesanya and Raheem, 2009a).

Besides using corn cob as cement replacing material, re-searchers have explored the possibility of using corn cob asaggregate. In the study by Binici et al. (2008), CCA was utilized asfine aggregate replacement by up to 6% and similar to the use ofWSA as fine aggregate replacement, the compressive strength ofconcrete containing CCA was improved by up to 40% at the age of365 d. In fact, the performance of CCA as partial fine aggregatereplacement was found to be better than that of WSA. Similarly,Binici et al. (2008) observed better durability performance of CCAconcrete than control and WSA concrete in terms of sulphateresistance, abrasion resistance and water penetration resistance.The improvement of the durability properties of CCA concrete wasattributed to the denser pore structure and more homogeneousform of the resulting concrete (Binici et al., 2008). Pinto et al.(2012) utilized granulated corn cob (Fig. 3) as aggregate to pro-duce lightweight concrete and compared the performance withlightweight concrete made from expanded clay aggregate. It wasfound that although the compressive strength of corn cob con-crete (120 kN/m2) was lower than that for expanded clay concrete(1360 kN/m2), the density and thermal performance were inaccordance and therefore it was suggested that corn cob light-weight concrete could be utilized for non-structural applications.

Jarabo et al. (2013) explored the possibility of utilizing wastecorn stalk to produce fibres as reinforcement for cement composite.In the pioneering study, two methods of preparing the fibres wereinvestigated, namely sodium hydroxide (NaOH)-anthraquinoneand organosolv process. It was found that the NaOH-anthraquinoneprocess by cooking the corn stalk in 10% NaOH at temperature of140 �C for 30 min gave optimal performance to cement composite,even though it was noted that the flexural strength of the cementcomposite reinforced with corn stalk fibres was lower compared tothat reinforced with common cellulose fibres made from refinedpine pulp.

corn cob waste (left) used by Pinto et al. (2012).


2.5. Olive

Olive crops produce significant amount of residual biomass.Approximately 3 t of pruning residues were generated each yearfrom 1 ha of olive trees, most of which are disposed inconsiderately(Cuenca et al., 2013). Solid and liquid olive mill wastes are dark-coloured wastes and contains high amount of organic materialswhich composed of many complex substances that do not easilydegrade, and hence cause environmental problems (Al-Akhras andAbdulwahid, 2010). In order to treat these wastes, the olive millwastes (olive pulp, husk and residual oil) were incinerated at hightemperature and ground to obtain olive waste ash (OWA), whichhas pozzolanic properties. Commonly, olivemill wastes contain 12%OWA (Al-Akhras et al., 2009). The silica content of OWA is generallyabout 11e25% (Cuenca et al., 2013; Al-Akhras et al., 2009) whichhas potential to be used as SCM in concrete. The chemical andphysical properties of OWA are presented in Tables 1 and 2,respectively.

In the past, several research works dealt with the utilization ofthe OWA as partial cement replacement in concrete. While Eisa(2014) found that the replacing cement with 30% OWA resultedin improved workability by 2-folds, Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid(2010) found that the workability of fresh concrete was reducedwhen OWAwas used as cement replacement and attributed this tothe larger surface area and fineness of OWA compared to ordinarycement. Cuenca et al. (2013) also observed reduced workabilitywhen OWAwas used as filler in self-compacting concrete due to theincreased water demand as a result of the irregular particle shape(Fig. 4), higher porosity and LOI of the OWA. On the other hand, itwas reported that the setting time of the fresh concrete wasdecreased in the presence of OWA due to the significant amount ofalumina in the OWA which accelerated the hydration process (Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid, 2010).

Generally, the strength properties of concrete was reducedwhen OWA was incorporated as partial cement replacement andthis was reported in several research work (Al-Akhras andAbdulwahid, 2010; Eisa, 2014). This was attributed to the increasecapillary pores in themortar containing OWA. However, at elevatedtemperatures of up to 600 �C, the residual compressive strength ofconcrete with up to 22% OWA was improved compared to theconcrete without OWA. This was supplemented by the lower

Fig. 4. SEM image showing irregular particle shape of OWA by Al-Akhras et al. (2009).

electrical charge passed through the OWA-blended concrete whichindicated less cracks and damage when the concrete was subjectedto elevated temperature (Al-Akhras et al., 2009). The authorsattributed the improved performance of concrete blended withOWA under elevated temperature to the pozzolanic reaction andfiller action of the OWA. However, the presence of greater numberof pores in the OWA concrete could also contribute to improved fireresistance performance due to the lower vapour pressure built upin the concrete. When OWA was used as filler instead of conven-tional filler in self-compacting concrete, it was found that thecompressive strength obtained for the former was marginallyhigher (Cuenca et al., 2013).

When OWA was used as partial fine aggregate replacement, Al-Akhras and Abdulwahid (2010) reported that the compressive andflexural strength of concrete mortar was improved as the OWAwasincorporated. The compressive and flexural strengths wereimproved by up to 21% and 40% respectively when the OWA wasused as partial fine aggregate replacement of up to 15% and this wasdue to the filler action of the OWA. Barreca and Fichera (2013)trialled with the use of olive stone (Fig. 5) as aggregate in cementlime mortar and found reduced density which would make the useof olive stone attractive to produce lightweight insulating mate-rials. However, due to the higher water absorption, it was recom-mended that thematerial to be coatedwith suitablewater proofing,which would limit the water absorption and hence thermal con-ductivity (Barreca and Fichera, 2013).

2.6. Banana

In 2012, approximately 10 mil t of banana leaf ash (BNNLA) andresidues were produced from banana plant. BNNLA was obtainedafter burning at temperature of 900 �C for 24 h in air based on thegrayscale or near-white tone of the BNNLA to maintain higherpercentage of amorphous reactive phases (Kanning et al., 2014).The percentage of BNNLA obtained (about 10.6%) from the burningof the dried material was similar to that of gray leaf of wheat andleaf stalk of sunflower (Kanning et al., 2011). According to Kanninget al. (2014), the BNNLA consisted mainly of silica, which was about49% and the LOI was about 5%. The Blaine's specific surface area andspecific gravity of the BNNLA was about 14,000 cm2/g and 2.44,respectively. The oxide composition and physical properties of theBNNLA are compared with other types of agro-waste ashes andpresented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Based on the findings byKanning et al. (2011), the BNNLA had pozzolanic activity but thepozzolanic reactivity was not significantly affected by the grindingtime and therefore it was established that the optimum grindingtime to be 30 min.

Fig. 5. Appearance of olive stone used by Barreca and Fichera (2013).


Due to the higher fineness of the BNNLA compared to cement,Kanning et al. (2014) observed that the BNNLA had filler effectwhich contributed to the lower amount of entrained air in mortarspecimens with up to 10% BNNLA cement replacement level.Similarly, the compressive and tensile strength of concrete speci-mens containing up to 20% BNNLA were approximately 12% and20% higher respectively than the corresponding control concrete. Inaddition, the incorporation of BNNLA reduced the tendency ofconcrete specimens towards corrosion (Kanning et al., 2014).

2.7. Sisal

In tropical countries, natural fibres are available in abundance aswaste material. For instance, for 1 t of commercially used sisal fi-bres, 3 t of residual fibres have been dumped which could causeenvironmental hazard (Agopyan et al., 2005). A sisal plant (Fig. 6)produces about 200e250 leaves before flowering, and each leafcontains 700e1400 fibre bundles. Approximately 4.5 mil t of sisalfibre are produced annually around the world. Since there are hugeamount of sisal fibre, the fibre has advantage in terms of sustain-ability as the fibre is renewable and is also considerably less costlycompared to synthetic fibre (Wei and Meyer, 2014). Typically, sisalfibres have tensile strength of about 400e575 MPa and MOE of15e19 GPa (Filho et al., 2005; Agopyan et al., 2005; Silva et al.,2011). The properties of sisal fibre are compared with other typesof agro fibres in Tables 3 and 4.

Similar to conventional fibre reinforced concretes, the inclusionof sisal fibres was also found to give higher flexural strength as wellas imparting toughness and ductility to concrete. When sisal fibreswere used at 10% volume fraction in cement composite, the com-posite exhibited strain hardening behaviour and multiple crackformation under tensile loading (Silva et al., 2010, 2011). Due to theductility and toughness imparted in concrete due to the addition ofthe sisal fibres, the performance of the concrete when subjected toimpact force was also improved, such as impact energy, crackresistance and failure pattern (Ramakrishna and Sundararajan,2005a). According to the findings by Ramakrishna andSundararajan (2005a), the impact energy and ultimate crackresistance of the concrete with sisal fibres could be improved by upto 6 and 5 times, respectively compared to the concrete withoutfibres.

Besides the improvement in the ductility of mortar through theuse of the sisal fibre, it was also found that the sisal fibre wasbeneficial in reducing the plastic and restrained shrinkage, inparticular at increased volume fractions. The beneficial effect offibres on the restrained shrinkage behaviour of the mortar wasattributed to the fibre bridging effect which reduced the cracking

Fig. 6. Example of the appearance of a sisal plant (Li et al., 2000).

tendency and the higher MOE of the fibres compared to themortar matrix (Filho et al., 2005). In addition, the sisal fibre actedas porous bridging elements across the crack surfaces whichincreased the flow path and permitted the deposition of newhydration products, thus leading to closure of cracks. However,the addition of sisal fibre was found to increase the dryingshrinkage of mortar (Filho et al., 2005; Silva et al., 2010) as thematrix porosity was increased. Savastano and Agopyan (1999)opined that because of the high water absorption rate of thesisal fibres, there was a wall effect which attracted the flow ofwater in the direction of water, inducing an increase in the localwater-to-cement (w/c) ratio and hence causing high porosity inthe transition zone. Also, due to the porous nature of the sisalfibre, more moisture paths into the cement matrix were createdwhich led to increase in the drying shrinkage (Silva et al., 2010).Compared to coconut fibres, the drying shrinkage of sisal fibremortar was higher due to the smoother surface and higher waterabsorption (Filho et al., 2005).

Despite the beneficial effects of utilizing sisal fibres, one of themajor limitation with the use of this fibre is the durability incement-based concrete. It was reported that untreated sisal fibres,when bonded in cement matrix, would gradually degrade andbecome increasingly brittle over time due to alkaline attack andfibre mineralisation as explained by Filho et al. (2003). Conse-quently, this would result in durability issues of the resultingcement composite. For example, in the investigation carried out byRamakrishna and Sundararajan (2005b), using corroded sisal fibreswhich were exposed to various mediums, there were clear re-ductions in the compressive and tensile strengths of the resultingcement composite. Recognizing this, researchers have attempted toimprove the durability of such fibre through two methods: i) bypre-treating the fibres with coating and ii) reducing the alkalinity ofcement mortar through the use of SCM (Agopyan et al., 2005;Claramunt et al., 2011).

Wei and Meyer (2014) explored thermal treatment and sodiumcarbonate (Na2CO3) treatment methods on the sisal fibres andfound improved durability of the resulting sisal fibre reinforcedconcretes. For the thermal treatment, the improved durability wasdue to the improved crystallinity of the treated sisal fibres, whichensured higher mechanical strength of the sisal fibres. When sisalfibres were soaked in Na2CO3, the calcium carbonate sedimentsfilled in the pits and cavities of the surface of the sisal fibres andhence protected the internal of the fibre from alkaline attack fromthe cement hydration process, contributing to the enhanceddurability of the concrete (Wei and Meyer, 2014). In anotherinvestigation on treatment of sisal fibres, Filho et al. (2003) notedthat the fibre composite containing pre-treated sisal fibre withsilica fume slurry behaved similarly as the control fibre compositecontaining untreated sisal fibre.

While the durability of the sisal fibre mortar could be improvedthrough the addition of silica fume, the use of ground granulatedblast furnace slag (GGBS) as partial cement replacement could notreduce the brittleness of the composite (Filho et al., 2003). Also, atlater ages, the drying shrinkage of sisal fibre mortar was lowerwhen silica fumewas used as partial cement replacement while useof GGBS led to 9% higher in the drying shrinkage value (Filho et al.,2005). Silva et al. (2010) found significant improvement in theflexural strength (about 4 times) and toughness (about 40 times) ofsisal fibre composite subjected to hot-water immersion when thecombination of metakaolin and calcined waste crushed clay brickwas used as partial cement replacement. The beneficial effect ofcement replacementmaterial to improve the durability of sisal fibrecomposite was mainly due to the reduction in fibre mineralizationas the alkalinity in the cement matrix was reduced, as indicated bySilva et al. (2010).


2.8. Date palm

Date palm is one of the most cultivated palms around the world,particularly in the North Africa and Middle East region. Date palmhave a fibrous structure with four types of fibres, namely leaf fibrein the peduncle, baste fibre in the stem, wood fibre in the trunk andsurface fibre around the trunk (Kriker et al., 2005). After annualtrimming of date palm trees, large amount of palm fibre wasteswere disposed, and this has enthused researchers into utilizingthese date palm fibres (DPFs) (Fig. 7) as fibre reinforcement inconcrete. In the investigation by Kriker et al. (2005), male date palmsurface fibre was found to have the highest tensile strength amongthe different species of DPF, in the range of 170e300 MPa (Table 4).Kriker et al. (2008) reported that the DPF had poor resistance to-wards alkaline solution attack, particularly when the fibres wereimmersed in Ca(OH)2 solution compared to NaOH solutionwhereby the fibres became increasingly brittle. This was attributedto the alkaline attack mechanism of the Ca(OH)2 which was bydiffusion, as compared to local attack in NaOH solution.

When DPF was used as fibre reinforcement in concrete, thecompressive strength was found to decrease with the increase inthe fibre content since the fibres introduced more pores in theconcrete whereas lower fibre content and shorter fibre lengthensured more uniform distribution of the fibres in the concrete,minimizing the flaws in the concrete. The plain concrete had 28-d compressive strength of about 30 MPa while addition of up to3% DPF could result in the reduction of the compressive strength toabout 17 MPa (Kriker et al., 2005). When DPF reinforced concretewas air-cured, the compressive strength was lower compared towater-curing due to the evaporation of water and development ofdrying cracks at later ages (Kriker et al., 2005). In terms of theflexural properties of DPF reinforced concrete, it was reported thatthere was decrease in the first crack strength of the fibre reinforcedconcrete compared to the control concrete, although the ductilitybehaviour was improved. However, further increase in the fibrepercentage of more than 2% would detrimentally affect the firstcrack strength and ductility of the resulting fibre reinforced con-crete (Kriker et al., 2005). Furthermore, in the same research, it wasfound that dry-hot environment had negative effect on the flexuralperformance of the DPF reinforced concrete, and this was attrib-uted to the rapid evaporation of water which induced developmentof voids and micro-cracks (Kriker et al., 2005).

Due to the nature of the DPF with low MOE whereby the fibrehad little role of resistance but rather role in thermal protection,Benmansour et al. (2014) investigated the usage of DPF for thermal

Fig. 7. DPFs which were used in different sizes by Benmansour et al. (2014).

insulating purpose in concrete. As the DPF had porous structure(Fig. 8), the water absorption of the fibre was high, which wassimilar to sisal fibre. Because of this, the incorporation of DPFreduced the density of concrete mortar, as well as decreased itsthermal conductivity. Although the increase in DPF contentreduced the mechanical strength of the mortar, the thermal con-ductivity could be reduced for better thermal insulating capacity(Benmansour et al., 2014), which would improve the energy effi-ciency in buildings.

2.9. Elephant grass

Elephant grass is one of the major source of biomass in Braziland during the process of burning of the elephant grass to producerenewable energy source, large quantities of ash have beengenerated. This ash is termed as elephant grass ash (EGA) andsimilar to other research works on agriculture waste ashes,different methods of pre-treatment of the EGA prior to burning wasinvestigated to produce suitable pozzolan (Cordeiro and Sales,2015). Three types of pre-treatment methods were adopted,namely i) oven-drying (at 110 �C for 2 h); ii) oven-drying, followedby washing with hot de-ionized water at 100 �C for 2 h, filtrationand further drying at 110 �C for 12 h; iii) oven-drying, followed byleaching for 2 h in hydrochloric acid solution at 90 �C, filtrationduring four washings with de-ionized water and further drying at110 �C for 12 h. It was found that when the EGA was subjected tohydrochloric acid leaching procedure, the specific surface area ofthe EGA as well as the silica content were increased. The chemicaland physical properties of EGA are presented in Tables 1 and 2,respectively. Pozzolanicity test indicated that pre-treated EGA hadgood pozzolanic reactivity and was similar to that of sugarcanebagasse ash. Cordeiro and Sales (2015) examined the possibility ofutilizing 20% non-pre-treated EGA as cement replacement and

Fig. 8. SEM image showing porous nature of DPF in the investigation carried out byKriker et al. (2008).


found that the concrete exhibited similar concrete compressivestrength, MOE and water absorption as the concrete without anyEGA.

The possibility of utilizing the outer core of the elephant grassstem as fibre reinforcement for concrete was examined by Mertaand Tschegg (2013). The elephant grass fibre had tensile strengthof about 40e60 MPa (Table 4), which was in the similar range aswheat straw fibre. It was observed that due to the low surfaceroughness of the fibre, the elephant grass fibre failed by pulling-outwith almost no transfer of stress, resulting in only a minimal 5%increase in the fracture energy of the fibre-reinforced concretecompared to the unreinforced concrete (Merta and Tschegg, 2013).

3. Aquaculture-farming waste

The farming of molluscs is a part of the aquaculture industry.Molluscs such as oyster, cockle, periwinkle and mussel are usuallyfarmed to provide source of supply of food and the post-consumershell residues are usually disposed to surrounding areas. In the past,a variety of seashells (Richardson and Fuller, 2013) such as oyster,mussel, clam (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012), cockle (Othman et al.,2013) and periwinkle (Falade, 1995) were utilized as partialreplacement materials in concrete in view to reduce these wastematerials. This review, however, only covers the previous investi-gation regarding the use of waste oyster, periwinkle and musselshells due to the greater availability of findings such that conclu-sions could be drawn.

3.1. Oyster

Oyster farming in South Korea and Taiwan is the major incomeof the local fisherman to meet the domestic demand for oyster(Yang et al., 2010; Kuo et al., 2013). However, there are largequantity of oyster shell left-over after the consumption of oyster;for about 1 kg of oysters consumed, there are about 370e700 g ofwaste shells residues (de Alvarenga et al., 2012). Globally, the wasteoyster shell (OS) could amount to about 200,000 t a year (Wanget al., 2013). Most of these shells are discarded and if left un-treated for long period of time, would result in sewage, foul odours

Fig. 9. Life cycle assessment by

and breeding of mosquitoes and flies, which would negativelyimpact the local health and living environment (Li et al., 2015). Onthe other hand, according to the life cycle assessment carried out byde Alvarenga et al. (2012), the recycle usage of waste OS could bringupon environmental benefits by making them in powdered form.The main benefit of recycling OS waste (Scenario B in Fig. 9) isprimarily due to the elimination of the disposal of the shell residuesin landfill and this caused huge reduction in the eco-indicator point(Pt), in which 1 Pt represent one thousandth of the yearly envi-ronmental load of one average European inhabitant. In cement-based concrete, researchers have carried out investigation to usewaste OS as partial cement, fine and coarse aggregate replacements(Fig. 10). The physical and chemical properties of waste OS aggre-gate and powder are shown in Tables 5e7. OS is primarilycomposed of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and small quantity ofmineral and organic materials.

Yang et al. (2005) noted that when OS is mixed with cementpaste, no significant reaction took place and therefore the OS hadonly filler effect. As agreed by researchers, the workabilitydecreased as the OS was used as partial fine aggregate replace-ment by up to 30% replacement level (Yang et al., 2005; Kuo et al.,2013). Kuo et al. (2013) opined that the decrease in the slump wasdue to the increasing water adsorption in the presence of OS,resulting in a more viscous concrete. Wang et al. (2013) attributedthe reduced workability to the irregularly flat particle of OS andincrease in mixture friction. However, as reported by Eo and Yi(2015), when the aggregate replacement level was increased to50%, the slump increased and this was attributed to the lack ofcoherence between cement paste and the OS. Due to the porousnature and rough grading of OS, the air content was also found toincrease in the concrete containing the OS (Eo and Yi, 2015). Interms of the compressive strength, most researchers reporteddecrease in the 28-d compressive strength of concrete as the fineaggregate replacement level with OS was increased (Yoon et al.,2004; Kuo et al., 2013; Eo and Yi, 2015) while Yang et al. (2010)found very similar 28-d compressive strength between concretewith and without OS. Nevertheless, in the study by Yang et al.(2010) as the age of concrete increased, the strength develop-ment of the concrete containing OS was lower, ultimately

de Alvarenga et al. (2012).

Fig. 10. Appearance of crushed OS used as coarse aggregate (left) and fine aggregate (right) used in the experimental investigation by Eo and Yi (2015).

Table 5Oxide composition of seashells (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012).

Oxide composition (%) Oyster shell ash Mussel shell ash

SiO2 1.01 0.73Al2O3 0.14 0.13Fe2O3 0.07 0.05CaO 53.59 53.38MgO 0.46 0.03K2O 0.02 0.02Na2O 0.23 0.44SO3 0.75 0.34Cl 0.01 0.02SO4 0.43 0.11CaCO3 96.8 95.6LOI 42.83 42.22

Table 6Physical properties of seashell ash.

Physical properties Oyster shell ash(Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012)

Mussel shell ash(Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012)

Periwinkle shell ash (Umoh andOlusola, 2013)

Specific gravity 2.65 2.86 2.13Moisture content (%) 0.36 0.47 1.50Blaine's specific surface area (cm2/g) 14,280 6186 e

Table 7Physical properties of seashell aggregate.

Physical properties Oyster shell (fine) (Yoon et al., 2004;Yang et al., 2005, 2010)

Oyster shell (coarse)(Eo and Yi, 2015)

Periwinkle shell (coarse) (Falade, 1995;Adewuyi and Adegoke, 2008)

Specific gravity 2.10e2.48 1.85 1.44e2.05Fineness modulus 2.00e2.80 4.8e6.5 e

Absorption rate (%) 2.90e7.66 9.2 12.99Moisture content (%) e e 8.32Bulk density (kg/m3) 1051 e 517e1243Uniformity coefficient 4.67 e >4.0Size (mm) 0.074e4.75 10e25 10e20


resulting in a lower compressive strength of OS concretecompared to the control concrete beyond 56 d. The lower strengthdevelopment in the OS concrete was attributed to the stressconcentration occurring in the weaker OS aggregate (Yang et al.,2010). Yoon et al. (2004) added that larger OS aggregate size(2.0e4.75 mm) gave lower compressive strength compared tosmaller OS aggregate size (0.074e2.0 mm) when used as fineaggregate replacement in concrete and this was due to thecomparatively larger pore volume of the former. When OS con-crete was tested for splitting and flexural tensile strengths, Yang

et al. (2005) and Eo and Yi (2015) reported lower valuescompared to the control concrete at 28 d, respectively whilereduction in MOE by up to 15% was also found when 20% OS wasused as partial fine aggregate replacement (Yang et al., 2005,2010). The lower stiffness of OS was said to be the reason forreduction in the MOE of the OS concrete and similar reason wasalso put forward in explaining the increase in the dryingshrinkage of concrete in the presence of OS (Yang et al., 2010; Kuoet al., 2013). The increase drying shrinkage strains in OS concretewas also attributed to the high water absorption rate of the OS(Kuo et al., 2013). In terms of the durability properties of OSconcrete, in general, Yang et al. (2010) found improved resistancetowards freezeethaw, carbonation and permeability and these

improvements were attributed to the finer grain of OS used whichhad pore refinement effect. On the contrary, Kuo et al. (2013) re-ported increased porosity and water absorption as well as reducedsulphate attack resistance in the OS concrete. The difference existsbetween the findings by Yang et al. (2010) and Kuo et al. (2013)could be attributed to the coarser as well as the significantlyhigher water absorption of OS used in the investigation by thelatter. As the water absorption of OS was high, Kuo et al. (2013)opined that the OS is more likely to be corroded by strong aciddue to the high content of CaCO3.

Fig. 11. Appearance of mussel shell which was used by Chin-Peow et al. (2015).


Eo and Yi (2015) also carried out investigation on partiallyreplacing coarse aggregate with OS. It was found that the in-crease in replacement level with OS caused decrease in slumpvalues, and in particular at 50% replacement level, zero slumpwas recorded. Similar to the use of OS as partial fine aggregatereplacement, the compressive and flexural strengths decreasedwith the use of OS as partial coarse aggregate substitute. How-ever, Eo and Yi (2015) noted that the use of OS with grain di-ameters of 10e13 mm was more favourable compared to thegrain diameters of 19e25 mm with respect to the strength andworkability considerations.

There has also been attempts to utilized ground OS to producepartial cement replacement materials for concrete. One of the mostdistinct property of ground OS is the high LOI of about 40% as theCaCO3 undergoes thermal decomposition into calcium oxide andcarbon dioxide at burning temperatures exceeding 550 �C(Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012). Compared to other types of seashellssuch as mussel and cockle shells, the ground OS was found to befiner, and this is an indication for better strength development. Ingeneral, the ground OS was used at up to 20% replacement level. AsOS replacement level increased, there was decrease in the freshconcrete properties i.e. reduction in water demand and increase insetting time (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012). Similar to the effect asfine and coarse aggregate replacement, the inclusion of OS as par-tial cement replacement was also found to reduce the compressivestrength of concrete. However, in this case, the drying shrinkage ofconcrete was decreased in the presence of OS due to the segmen-tation of pores by the fine OS particles which contributed to adenser structure and reduction in internal voids (Lertwattanaruket al., 2012). In the same study, the thermal conductivity of con-crete was found to reduce as the replacement level of OS wasincreased.

3.2. Periwinkle

Periwinkles are a type of small marine snails, found commonlyin riverine and coastal regions in Nigeria where they are used forfood (Orangun, 1974). When the periwinkle is big enough, theedible part is removed after boiling in water, and the shell isdumped as waste (Umoh and Olusola, 2013), which results inenvironmental pollution if not disposed properly. Similar to oystershell, periwinkle shell (PS) consists primarily of calcium carbonate,which is about 96% (Orangun,1974). Most of the research have beendevoted into utilizing PS waste as coarse aggregate replacement inconcrete (Orangun, 1974; Falade, 1995; Adewuyi and Adegoke,2008; Osarenmwinda and Awaro, 2009). Researchers establishedthat as the coarse aggregate replacement level with PS, the work-ability of the fresh concrete was reduced. This was attributed to theincreased specific surface area of the PS (Adewuyi and Adegoke,2008) as well as the possibility of the mixing water escaping intothe surface pores of the PS (Falade, 1995) which reduced theeffective amount of mixing water. In terms of the hardened con-crete, since the specific gravity of PS aggregate is lower than con-ventional granite and generally around 2.05 (Osarenmwinda andAwaro, 2009), the resulting density of concrete could be reducedto the range of 1480e2160 kg/m3 (Adewuyi and Adegoke, 2008;Osarenmwinda and Awaro, 2009), depending on the mix designand aggregate replacement ratio and this indicates the potential ofPS concrete to be produced as lightweight concrete. Researchersalso reported that the inclusion of PS resulted in decrease in thecompressive strength of concrete, and this was possibly due to thepoor bond between PS and cement matrix (Falade, 1995), insuffi-cient cement paste for bonding (Adewuyi and Adegoke, 2008) aswell as the limited crushing strength of PS aggregate (Orangun,1974). Nevertheless, with full coarse aggregate replacement with

PS, concrete with compressive strength of up to 25 MPa could beachieved (Orangun, 1974). Orangun (1974) also found that whenreinforced concrete beams were prepared with PS as aggregate, thedeflection of the beams under flexural loading was about 20%higher compared to conventional concrete and this was due to thelower MOE of PS concrete observed. Nevertheless, based on theinvestigation, Orangun (1974) concluded that the design of thereinforced PS concrete beam for strength and serviceability couldbe similar to normal concrete, subject tomodifications proposed forlightweight concrete.

Umoh and Olusola (2013) utilized PS ash (PSA) as partial cementreplacement in concrete and in general, there was a decrease in theworkability as the replacement level was increased due to the in-crease in surface area to be wetted and lubricated. In terms ofcompressive strength, under normal condition, the compressivestrength decreased as replacement level of PSA was increased;however, when exposed to magnesium sulphate, the concreteblended with PSA exhibited lower strength reductions compared tothe control concrete and the optimum performance was found tobe at 10% PSA replacement level (Umoh and Olusola, 2013).

3.3. Mussel

Similar to OS and PS, mussel shell (MS) (Fig. 11) is a post-consumer residue and composed mainly of CaCO3. However, as thecrystal structure of MS are largely composed of aragonite and calcite,theMS reportedly had higher strengths and densities than limestonepowder (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012). Besides that, as groundMS hadslender needle-like shapes, when mixed in mortar, the MS had astructured mesh and smaller pores, which could result in highercompressive and flexural strengths (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012)compared to limestone. Because of this, limestone powder derivedfrom MS was found to be particularly effective in enhancing thestrength of mortar when used as partial cement replacement(Ballester et al., 2007). In the investigation by Lertwattanaruk et al.(2012), similar to OS, the MS resulted in reduced water demandand increase in workability of cement mortar. However, thecompressive strength of the mortar obtained when mixed with MSwas lower compared to that of OS while the drying shrinkage wasalso higher and these could be due to the lower fineness of MS usedin the study compared to that for OS (Lertwattanaruk et al., 2012). Inseparate investigation, Chin-Peow et al. (2015) utilized groundMS aspartial sand replacement in mortar and found decrease in thecompressive strength which was attributed to the poor bonding dueto the flaky and smooth surface of MS.

Table 8Summary of usage of waste material in concrete.

Farming waste Usage Amount used Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete Reference

Bamboo CR 10%, 20% � Water demand increased� Setting time increased� Decrease in 7 d compressive strength� Similar strength as control concrete at 28 and 90 d

Frias et al. (2012)

CR 5e25% � Water demand increased� Final setting time increased� Higher compressive strength at 5e10% replacement levels� Porosity increased� Bulk density decreased

Umoh and Odesola (2015)

FA-CC 2e16% � Water demand increased� Porosity and water absorption increased� Bulk density decreased� Flexural strength decreased with up to 2% fibre; increased between

2 and 8% and decreased beyond 8%� Fracture toughness increased� Deflection increased

Xie et al. (2015)

FA-CC 6e12% � Porosity and water absorption decreased with 6e8% fibre;increased at 10e12%

� Flexural strength highest for 8% fibre� Modulus of elasticity highest for 6% fibre

Correia et al. (2014)

FA-CO 0.5e1.5% � Compressive strength increased with 0.5% fibre� Impact energy increased with 1.0% fibre� Improved ductility

Ramaswamy et al. (1983)

Wheat CR 8, 16, 24% � 28 d compressive strength decreased; similar 180 d strengthas control for 8% replacement level

� Flexural strength increased� Improved resistance to sulfate attack in terms of compressive strength

Biricik et al. (2000)

SR 3.6, 7.3, 11% � Flow decreased� Initial setting time increased� Compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths increased

Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul (2002)

SR 5, 10, 15% � Thermal cycling resistance improved Al-Akhras et al. (2008)SR 2, 4, 6% � Compressive strength increased

� Sulfate resistance improved� Abrasion resistance improved� Water penetration depth reduced

Binici et al. (2008)

CR 5, 10, 15% � Durability towards freezeethaw damage improved Al-Akhras (2011)CR 5, 10, 15% � Alkali-silica reaction durability improved Al-Akhras (2013)CR 20% � Pre-treated WSA increased compressive strength Ataie and Riding (2013)FA-CO 0.19% � Minimal increase in fracture energy Merta and Tschegg (2013)

Barley FA-CO 5.10% � Shrinkage reduced� Porosity increased� Thermal diffusivity reduced� Ductility improved� Compressive strength increased

Belhadj et al. (2014)

Corn CR 2e25% � Workability reduced� Early strength decreased� Strength gain increased

Adesanya and Raheem (2009a)

CR 2e25% � Initial and final setting times increased Adesanya and Raheem (2009b)SR 2, 4, 6% � Compressive strength increased

� Sulfate resistance improved� Abrasion resistance improved� Water penetration depth reduced

Binici et al. (2008)

CAR 100% � Comparable thermal properties with expanded claylightweight concrete

Pinto et al. (2012)

Olive CR 7, 15, 21% � Residual strength upon exposure to heat increased Al-Akhras et al. (2009)CR 5, 10, 15% � Workability reduced

� Setting time decreased� Compressive strength decreased� Flexural strength decreased


CR 5e30% � Workability increased� Compressive strength reduced� Tensile strength reduced

Eisa (2014)

SR 5, 10, 15% � Workability reduced� Compressive strength increased� Flexural strength increased


F 10% � Water demand increased compared to conventional filler� Compressive strength increased compared to conventional filler

Cuenca et al. (2013)

Banana CR 10, 20% � Compressive strength increased� Tensile strength increased

Kanning et al. (2014)


Table 8 (continued )

Farming waste Usage Amount used Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete Reference

Sisal FA-CC 0.1, 0.2, 0.5% � Plastic and restrained shrinkage reduced� Drying shrinkage increased

Filho et al. (2005)

FA-CC 0.5e2% � Impact resistance improved Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005)FA-CC 10% � Toughness improved

� Drying shrinkage increasedSilva et al. (2010)

Date palm FA-CO 2, 3% � Compressive strength decreased� Ductility improved

Kriker et al. (2005)

FA-CC 5e30% � Density decreased� Compressive strength decreased� Thermal conductivity reduced

Benmansour et al. (2014)

Elephant grass CR 20% � No effect on compressive strength� No effect on MOE� No effect on water absorption

Cordeiro and Sales (2015)

FA-CO 0.19% � Minimal increase in fracture energy Merta and Tschegg (2013)

Oyster CR 5e20% � Setting time increased� Compressive strength reduced� Drying shrinkage reduced� Thermal conductivity reduced

Lertwattanaruk et al. (2012)

SR 100% � Similar compressive strength using small particle size OS� Compressive strength decreased using large particle size OS

Yoon et al. (2004)

SR 5, 10, 20% � Workability reduced� No effect on setting time� Early strength increased� 28 d tensile strength decreased� 28 d MOE decreased

Yang et al. (2005)

SR 10, 20% � No effect on 28 d compressive strength� 28 d MOE decreased� Drying shrinkage increased� Freezeethaw resistance improved� No effect on carbonation� No effect on chemical resistance� Water permeability resistance improved

Yang et al. (2010)

SR 5e20% � Workability reduced� Compressive strength increased at 5% replacement level;

strength reduced at higher replacement level� Shrinkage increased� Sulfate resistance reduced

Kuo et al. (2013)

SR 10, 30, 50% � No effect on drying shrinkage� Compressive strength decreased� Tensile strength decreased

Eo and Yi (2015)

CAR 10e100% � Workability reduced� Drying shrinkage increased� Compressive strength decreased� Tensile strength decreased

Eo and Yi (2015)

Periwinkle CR 10e40% � Compressive strength decreased� Improved resistance towards magnesium sulfate attack

Umoh and Olusola (2013)

CAR 100% � MOE decreased� Flexural strength decreased� Load capacity of reinforced concrete beam unaffected� Deflection of reinforced concrete beam increased

Orangun (1974)

CAR 10e100% � Workability reduced� Compressive strength decreased� Flexural strength decreased� Density decreased

Falade (1995)

CAR 25e100% � Workability reduced� Compressive strength decreased� Density decreased

Adewuyi and Adegoke (2009)

Mussel CR 5e20% � Setting time increased� Compressive strength reduced� Drying shrinkage reduced� Thermal conductivity reduced

Lertwattanaruk et al. (2012)

SR 25e100% � Compressive strength increased Chin-Peow et al. (2015)

CR: Cement replacement; SR: Sand replacement; CAR: Coarse aggregate replacement; FA-CC: Fibre addition in cement composite; FA-CO: Fibre addition in concrete.


4. Discussion

Based on the review undertaken, it was found that generallyfarming waste could be utilized in three forms in concrete,namely aggregate replacement, cement replacement and fibre

reinforcement. Table 8 shows the summary of types of agricul-ture- and aquaculture-farming waste materials which wereincorporated into concrete in previous research works. Thecomparison of the properties of the resulting concrete with plaincontrol concrete is also shown in Table 8.


Most farming waste materials are utilized in the form of SCM,particularly those from the agriculture sector, such as banana leafash, bamboo leaf ash, wheat straw ash, elephant grass ash and corncob ash, since these materials possess high amount of silica contentafter burning at high temperatures. The high amount of silicacontent contained within these ashes enables the materials toexhibit pozzolanic reactivity, which is beneficial to the later agestrength development of concrete. Moreover, the selection ofoptimal burning temperature and grinding of the farming agricul-turewaste ensures a higher quality pozzolanic material with highersilica content. The burning temperatures used in previous re-searches are summarized in Table 9 and it is shown that generallyburning temperature of above 600 �C is recommended.

As reflected in the summary in Table 8, in general, the use ofthese agriculture farming waste as SCM would reduce the work-ability of concrete due to porous nature and fineness of the SCM;the strength of the concrete at early age would also be lower, if notsimilar to the control concrete. However, due to the pozzolanicreaction of these SCM, conversion of Ca(OH)2 to additional calciumsilicate hydrate (CSH) could take place, and hence the later agecompressive strength of the resulting concrete would exceed thoseof the control concrete. The pore refinement effect due to thepozzolanic reaction of the agriculture farming waste as SCM alsocontributed to the improved durability properties observed inprevious investigations. On the other hand, when aquaculturefarming waste such as seashells was used as partial cementreplacement, little improvement could be found as the majority ofthe ash consisted of CaCO3, and unlike the agriculture farmingwastes, the seashells do not possess pozzolanic behaviour.

In contrast to using agriculture farming waste as partialcement replacement, when used in the powder form as fineaggregate replacement, the farming wastes such as olive waste,corn cob and wheat straw ashes could improve the strength anddurability properties of concrete since the materials could act asfiller due to its high fineness, as well as exhibiting pozzolanicreaction in the concrete for pore refinement. Owing to the fine-ness of the material, the use of such materials commonly resul-ted in reduced workability due to the increase in water demand.On the contrary, as shown in Table 8, aquaculture farming wastesuch as OS, when used as partial fine aggregate replacement inits aggregate form, resulted in lowering of the strength

Table 9Comparison of burning temperatures and duration of waste materials.

Reference Farming waste

Dwivedi et al. (2006) Bamboo leafSingh et al. (2007)Villar-Cocina et al. (2011)Frias et al. (2012)Umoh and Olusola (2015)

Biricik et al. (1999) Wheat strawBiricik et al. (2000)Al-Akhras and Abu-Alfoul (2002)Al-Akhras et al. (2008)Binici et al. (2008)Al-Akhras (2011)Al-Akhras (2013)Ataie and Riding (2013)

Binici et al. (2008) Corn cobAdesanya and Raheem (2009b)

Al-Akhras et al. (2009) OliveAl-Akhras and Abdulwahid (2010)

Kanning et al. (2014) Banana leaf

Cordeiro and Sales (2015) Elephant grass

properties. This was mainly attributed to the weaker aggregatestrength as well as the shape of the waste aggregates. However,there are also contrasting reports on the effect of the durabilitybehaviour due to the significantly different nature of the OS usedin separate investigations. In terms of coarse aggregate replace-ment, several farming wastes such as corn cob, OS and PS weretrialled and in general, the concrete properties were all reducedin the presence of these materials, primarily because of the lowerinherent strength of the materials as aggregate.

The use of natural fibres (bamboo, sisal, wheat straw, date palmand elephant grass fibres) from agricultural farming wastes asreinforcement, generally brought upon beneficial effects on theductility of concrete. However, one of the major shortcomings isthe durability of the fibres in cement matrix, since the fibres couldbe susceptible towards alkali attack, which is formed as part ofcement hydration process and would lead to increased brittlenessand degradation of the fibres over prolonged period. Nevertheless,with appropriate pre-treatment of the natural fibres such asthermal treatment and the use of SCM to partially replace cement,the long term durability of the fibres in concrete could beimproved.

5. Conclusion

In short, this paper summarized the potential usage of a va-riety of alternative farming wastes from both agriculture andaquaculture in concrete, such as in the form of cement replace-ment, aggregate replacement as well as fibre reinforcement.Although the use of farming waste materials could result inreduction in some of the properties of concrete (such as work-ability and strength properties), the dosage could be limitedbased on the summarized findings in this review to achievedadequate concrete performance. Besides that, if proper treatment(such as pre-treatment and burning) and selection of materialsare carried out, these materials could be incorporated in concretefor improved mechanical and durability performance. Conse-quently, the production of a more sustainable and green concretecould be realized, whereby waste conservation and reducednegative impact on the environment could be achieved. Thiswould ultimately lead to a more sustainable construction for the

Burning temperature (�C) Duration (h)

600 2600 2600 2600 1.2500 2

570, 670 5670 5650 20800 2600 3900 e

900 6500, 650, 700, 800 1, 2

600 3650 8

800 8900 8

900 24

350; 600 3; 3


construction industry and at the same time a cleaner environ-ment for the society to live in.

Acknowledgement

This research work was funded by the University of Malayaunder the High Impact Research Grant (HIRG) No. UM.C/HIR/MOHE/ENG/02/D000002-16001.

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