Alkaline treatments on EFB fibre: the effect on mechanical-physical properties and fibre-cement hydration rate

The natural fibres commonly used to enhance the brittleness of the cement matrix but appropriate fibre should be used for a particular purpose depending upon the type of fibre and characteristics. The Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) fibre is one of the major crops in Malaysia, which contribute large scale of waste that is durable and make it reasonable for utilization in cement-based product. However, the presence of hemicellulose, lignin and extractive (oil, sugar and starch) affect the performance of EFB fibre and causes an incompatibility of EFB fibre and cement. Hence, this research is been conducted to explore the suitable proportion of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) treatment for EFB fibre to increase the compatibility of cement with EFB fibre. The NaOH concentration of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% were used in this study as a chemical pre-treatment of EFB fibre for surface morphology observation and hydration rate test. Meanwhile for only untreated fibre, fibre treated with 0.4% (low concentration), 1% (medium concentration) and 4% (high concentration) of alkali treatment were tested for tensile strength of single EFB fibre. The fibre treated with NaOH has shown a significant different on the hydration temperature for EFB fibre- cement mixed compared with the untreated fibre. The higher NaOH concentration, the greater hydration temperatures obtain. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image show that the increment NaOH concentration applied, the rougher EFB fibre surface is observed with lesser silica body remain. The tensile properties of individual fibre treated with NaOH (0.4%, 1% and 4%) has shown significant increment as compare to the untreated fibre with the highest tensile properties mean value 422.90 N/mm2 at 4% NaOH concentration

Compatibility assessment for physical and mechanical properties of empty fruit bunch cement-bonded fibreboard

Agricultural by-products such as EFB fibre may be used as an alternative for producing CBFB. Compatibility assessment for physical and mechanical properties of Cement-Bonded Fibreboard (CBFB) made of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) is important to identify the suitability of incorporating EFB into CBFB. However, there are known compatibility issues between EFB fibre with cement mixtures as the fibres contain residual oil and sugar that inhibit cement setting and hydration. Besides that, the geometry of fibre has been said to be a factor that affects the physical and mechanical properties of CBFB. Hence, this study was conducted to carry out the compatibility assessments to improve the properties of Empty Fruit Bunch Cement Board (EFB-CB) besides to identify the role of fibre length in the mechanical and physical properties. Two compatibility assessments which include alkaline treatment by using sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and cement accelerators which is Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) and Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2) were carried out on EFB-CB fabrications. The fabrication of EFB-CB specimens was done by incorporating EFB fibres with different lengths classified as R7M, R14M and R80M to establish findings on the effect of fibre length on EFB-CB. The research finding shows that the combination of EFB fibre size with distributions of 35%, 45% and 20% for R7M, R14M and R80M respectively is the optimum fibre length that can be used for further research. Whereas the finding on the compatibility assessment shows the requirements for the physical and mechanical properties were met after subjecting EFB-CB to 1% NaOH treatment for EFB fibre along with the addition of 0.3% CaCl2 or 0.4% MgCl2 as cement accelerators. Similar requirements were fulfilled for EFB fibres treated with 4% NaOH with or without cement accelerators. The results indicated that EFB fibre can be regarded as a potential replacement material used in the manufacturing of CFB for non-load bearing applications after it had gone through compatibility improvement methods

Life Cycle Assessment of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Farming in Kenyir Lake, Terengganu

This study presents results from a life cycle assessment (LCA) conducted following the CML-IA method on caged aquaculture of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) species at Como River, Kenyir Lake, Terengganu, Malaysia. In this study, the greenhouse gas (GHG) estimation, calculated based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 Guidelines, showed that 245.27 C eq (1.69 Kg) of nitrate oxide (N2O) was emitted from the lake. The determination of LCA was conducted using several inputs, namely N2O, compositions of fish feed, materials used to build fish cages (infrastructure), main materials used during operation and several databases, namely Agri-footprint, Ecoinvent 3, European Reference Life-Cycle Database (ELCD), and Industry Data 2.0. The results show that feed formulation is the major contributor to potential environmental impact in aquaculture farming, at 55%, followed by infrastructure at 33% and operation at 12%. The feed formulation consisting of 53% broken rice contributed to marine ecotoxicity (MET), while those consisting of 44% fish meal and 33% soybean meal contributed to abiotic depletion (ABD) and global warming (GW), respectively. It is recommended that the percentage of ingredients used in feed formulation in fish farming are further studied to reduce its impacts to the environment