Concrete with low carbon dioxid emissions : Reduced amount of cement with husk ashes

Abstract: The world is facing a major climate threat where carbon dioxide emissions are in focus. At the same time, society requires new buildings and developed infrastructure. Concrete is one of the most common building materials and 30 billion tonnes are produced annually, which corresponds to about 6 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions occur during cement production. Sweden's long-term climate goal is that by 2045 there will be no net emissions to the atmosphere. To achieve this, a major change is required in the concrete and cement industry. Carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by reducing the amount of cement in concrete and replacing the reduced amount with a supplement. Materials with pozzolanic properties have been shown to work well as binders in concrete. Pozzolan materials contain a high content of silica which reacts well with calcium hydroxide in cement. Oat and rice husk ash that is burned under the right conditions has shown good pozzolanic properties. The purpose of this thesis is to optimize a concrete recipe that will result in reduced carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the amount of cement. The reduced amount of cement is replaced with rice husk ash. The report is based on laboratory work where concrete recipes are mixed, measured for density, tested for set and spread measurements and cast into cubes for later tensile strength testing. The results from the laboratories showed that rice husk ash as a binder in concrete provides high early compressive strength, high density through particle compaction and becomes self-compacting without stone separation. One conclusion that can be drawn is that rice husk ash as a supplement to cement can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions by 54 percent.