Bamboo Cement Block with Agricultural Waste

Abstract

Building construction materials have been currently studied for the purpose of energy and environment conservation. With important role of building wall, cement block is one type of wall materials that is widely used in industrial sector and production in communities. This research aimed to study cement block production with agricultural waste easily found in community. Bamboo is a material with important characteristics because it has straight trunk and inside its trunk has space that can be thermal insulation. In producing cement blocks, they were made as a guideline for developing construction materials that could be locally produced and to promote local people to manage the agricultural waste properly instead of burning it.                     

      The research results revealed the development process of model and component mixture as follows. The block size was 39x19x7 cm based on Thai Industrial Standard (TIS 58-2533). Agricultural waste mixed with cement were coconut coir dust, rice husk, and rice straw, which helped bamboo cement block with a mixture of 1 part cement, 2 part coarse sand, and  1 part agricultural waste get 7.36 kg density per block; approximately decreased by 25% per each. Temperature was the same in all modeled boxes. Because agricultural waste was homogeneously blended with cement, mass property changed very little. Bamboo cement block with rice husk had the highest relative humidity while one with rice straw became the lowest when comparing in the same period because the husk rice could absorb more moisture, but cement mixed with rice straw absorbed lower and its value was close to unmixed cement. The result of this research can be used as a guideline for future studies and making decisions on applying agricultural waste and bamboo in industrial development in the future.