Compressive Strength of Empty Fruit

The benefits of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) as the partial cement replacement has been

well established. For instance, the usage of EFB as cement replacement material not only

harmless to the environment, but it also helps to preserve the natural resources. Besides,

due to the high composition of Potassium, EFB can also be use as a fertilizer. EFB has

been chosen based on its environmental-friendly characteristics and high in availability.

In this paper, the EFB were incinerated using the Ferrocement Furnace to form Empty

Fruit Bunch ash (EFBash). The percentage replacements of EFBash were 0% (control),

5%, 10%, 20% and 30%. The superplasticizers (SP) were added to the concrete mix

according to certain specifications. The concrete cube specimens were tested for

compressive strength for the ages of 7, 14, 28, 60 and 90 days. The result shows that the

5% EFBash concrete cube specimens gained the most optimum compressive strength

compared to the other percentages of EFBash concrete cube specimens. The compressive

strength of the concrete cube specimens were reduced as the percentage replacements of

EFBash increased and the addition of SP contributed to the early strength of the concrete

cube specimens.

1.1 General Background

The present construction system using plain concrete has shown its demerit these days.

Basically, concrete is a construction material composed of substance such as fly ash, cement,

water, chemical admixture and aggregate (Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia, 2010). Limestone is

used as a main component in production of cement. However, the depletion of limestone

nowadays is quite worrying. The government took this matter seriously and has decided to

conduct a study to overcome this problem few years back. Results from several successful

researches from many agencies, they have identified EFBash (Empty Fruit Bunch Ash) of oil

palm as a new replacement material for cement.

The government have take considerations of the availability of this material since

Malaysia is the second largest producer of palm oil. In 2008, Malaysia