An investigation of the effectiveness of the utilization of biomass ashes as pozzolanic materials

Utilization of biomass ash from agro-industrial by-products (containing large amounts of silica in amorphous form) in cement manufacturing and/or concrete production can be an alternative solution to the incorporation of the traditionally used supplementary cementing materials (SCMs). An evaluation of biomass ashes, identified in the literature, with varying SiO2 contents in terms of concrete strength and performance in chloride exposure is the focus of this study. Results indicate that these materials are effective on concrete strength development and extremely efficient in reducing the concrete permeability. The dependency of this behavior on the level of SiO2 of the ash content was examined in depth and was concluded that it is affected by the composition of other components of the biomass ash. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.