Sugar‐cane bagasse ash (SCBA): studies on its properties for reusing in concrete production

Abstract Sugar cane bagasse is an industrial waste which is used worldwide as fuel in the same sugar‐cane industry. The combustion yields ashes containing high amounts of unburned matter, silicon and aluminium oxides as main components. These sugar‐cane bagasse ashes (SCBA) have been chemically, physically and mineralogically characterized, in order to evaluate the possibility of their use as a cement‐replacing material in the concrete industry. Determination of parameters such as carbon content (by thermal analysis methods), presence of crystalline material (by X‐ray diffractometry), granulometric distribution (by laser diffraction in water suspensions), morphology of particles (by scanning electron microscopy) and reactivity towards lime (pozzolanic activity by thermogravimetric monitoring in lime/SCBA and cement/SCBA pastes) have been carried out. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry