Study on the Effects of Palm Oil Frond Ash (POFA) in Geopolymer Cement Properties

Geopolymerization is the current booming field of research for utilizing solid waste and by-products. It does give a cost-effective solution to many problems where hazardous residue has to be treated and stored at critical environmental conditions. From geopolymerization, a new technology which is geopolymer cement also known as green cement has been introduced. Geopolymer cement is also said to reduced greenhouse gas footprints when compared to conventional cement slurries used in oil and gas well cementing operations. In this project, the writer has been assigned to carry out the study on geopolymer characteristic properties of Palm Oil Frond Ash (POFA) and its effects as geopolymer cement materials. The main objectives of this project are to study the properties of palm oil frond ash based geopolymer, to find the compressive strength of the geopolymer cement by using palm oil frond ash and will be decide whether palm oil frond ash can be an alternative to replace the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) that we are currently using or not. The experiments will be done by mixing the POFA with other materials such as alkaline activators to produce cement paste. The cement paste is then poured into specific mould size and left for curing at different curing time and curing temperature. The results of compressive strength test are recorded and analyzed. In conclusion, the POFA geopolymer cement gives higher compressive strength in 12M of sodium hydroxide solution and with increment of alkaline activators to POFA mass ratio, the compressive strenght will increase but 100 percent of POFA geopolymer cement might not be suitable to be used as cement replacement material