Effectiveness of Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) as Partial Cement Replacement in Peat Stabilization

Abstract

Due to high organic content, presence of humic acid and less solid particles in peat soil, cement alone is inadequate as a chemical admixture for this ground stabilization except a large quantity of cement is mixed. Sugarcane production is world number one commodities and produced a lot of bagasse. Bagasse is burnt to generate power required for diverse activities in the factory and leave bagasse ash as a waste. Increasing concern of disposal of bagasse residual creates interest to explore the potential application of this material. These research emphases on laboratory investigation on the application of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) as partial cement replacement in peat stabilization. Other than SCBA, calcium chloride (CaCl2), Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and silica sand (K7) were used as additives to stabilize the peat that sampled from Hokkaido, Japan. To develop the optimal mix design, specimens of stabilized peat were tested in unconfined compression. Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) apparatus was used to examine elemental composition and microstructure. It was found that stabilized peat comprising 20% partial replacement of OPC with SCBA has the maximum unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and discovered about 29 times greater than that of untreated peat specimen.