Abstract:
Industrialization and urbanization have increased exponentially over the decade. This have caused serious impact on the environment due to the vast consumption of energy and eco-unsustainable production. Therefore, scientists and engineers are placing more effort of designing better environmentally sustainable systems. To achieve sustainability, one potential solution is to use renewable resources to produce construction materials. In this research, biochar, a carbonaceous solid material produced from the waste source poultry litter, is utilized as a renewable resource to replace cement content while making mortar which is being used in the construction industry. The mechanical properties of mortar was investigated through different tests. Three major tests were used to analyze cement biochar composite. The tests are compressive strength test, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and water absorbance test. A total of 60 samples were prepared for mechanical testing of biochar-mortar composites. The compression test revealed that with greater biochar replacement in mortar, compression strength was reduced. However, the 28 days cured biochar cement composites exhibited higher compressive strength than 12.5MPa, which is the minimum compressive strength requirement of mortar for structural use. The FTIR analysis showed that with increasing biochar replacement, less calcium silicate hydrates were formed in the biochar cement composites. The water absorption test showed that with increasing biochar replacement, more water is retained in the mortar-biochar composites. From the results, it can be concluded that biochar can be a viable alternative of cement, up to certain percentage, while making mortar for specific applications.