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Cited by 67Concrete and Cement Materials ResearchRecycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials productionMaterials Engineering and Processing

Influence of Liquid-to-Solid and Alkaline Activator (Sodium Silicate to Sodium Hydroxide) Ratios on Fresh and Hardened Properties of Alkali-Activated Palm Oil Fuel Ash Geopolymer

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Kwek, Shi Ying, Awang, Hanizam, Cheah, Chee Ban·2021·Materials
DOI 10.3390/ma14154253PMC PMC8347924
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Abstract

Malaysia is one of the largest palm oil producers in the world and its palm oil industry is predicted to generate a large amount of waste, which increases the need to modify it for sustainable reuse. The green geopolymers produced from industrial waste can be a potential substitute for cementitious binders. This type of polymer helps reduce dependency on cement, a material that causes environmental problems due to its high carbon emissions. Palm oil fuel ash (POFA) geopolymer has been widely investigated for its use as a sustainable construction material. However, there is still uncertainty regarding the total replacement of cement with POFA geopolymer as a binder. In this study, we examined the effects of different material design parameters on the performance of a POFA-based geopolymer as a building material product through iterations of mixture optimisation. The material assessed was a single raw precursor material (POFA) activated by an alkaline activator (a combination of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate with constant concentration) and homogenised. We conducted a physical property test, compressive strength test, and chemical composition and microstructural analyses to evaluate the performance of the alkali-activated POFA geopolymer at 7 and 28 days. According to the results, the optimum parameters for the production of alkali-activated POFA paste binder are 0.6 liquid-to-solid ratio and 2.5 alkaline activator ratio. Our results show that the use of alkali-activated POFA geopolymer is technically feasible, offering a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for POFA disposal.

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  • Higher sodium silicate (Na2SiO3)/sodium hydroxide (NaOH) ratios lower the workability and strength of the mixture.

    “However, higher sodium silicate (Na2SiO3)/sodium hydroxide (NaOH) ratios are encouraged to be studied for geopolymer systems due to commercial and marketing interest, lowering the workability and strength of the mixture [51,74,78,102,103,109,110].”

    From Potential of Soil Stabilization Using Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) and Fly Ash via Geopolymerization Method: A Review (2022) · cites this paper as [109]

    Section 3.2 (page unavailable) reports that flow decreased as the Na2SiO3/NaOH ratio increased, supporting the workability claim. It also reports that compressive strength increased up to a ratio of 2.5 and declined marginally at 3.0. Thus, higher ratios do not generally lower strength; that finding applies only beyond the study’s optimum. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kwek, S. Y., Awang, H., & Cheah, C. B.
Affiliations
Universiti Sains Malaysia (MY)
Corresponding author
Awang, Hanizam
ORCID
Venue
Materials
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2021-07-30
Volume
14
Issue
15
Pages
4253
ISSN
1996-1944 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/ma14154253
PMC
PMC8347924
OpenAlex
W3183350631
Cited by
67
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10
FWCI
4.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Materials (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (203/PPBGN/6711610)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Concrete and Cement Materials Research
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Materials Engineering and Processing
Keywords
palm oil fuel ash, alkali-activated geopolymer, sodium silicate, sodium hydroxide, liquid-to-solid ratio, compressive strength, microstructure, industrial waste utilization, cement replacement, oil palm waste

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