A Study on Optimum Use of Fly Ash and GGBS in Fiber Cement Sheet to Enhance Sustainable Manufacturing

Abstract The biproducts of different industries must be reused or recycled which will avoid disposal of waste materials in the environment in different forms to protect our environment. Also the hazardous material used for the manufacturing of the products to be eliminated or minimized. In this paper a study has been conducted for optimum use of fly ash generated from power plants and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) generated from steel plants in the manufacturing of fiber cemented roofing sheets. Also different percentages of fly ash, GGBS and pulp were added during the manufacturing of fiber cement roofing sheets in a fiber cement roofing sheet manufacturing plant and the quality of the final product has been tested subsequently in the laboratory to minimize the use of cement and asbestos fiber. Different results have been achieved in different percentages of fly ash, cement, GGBS, wood pulp and asbestos fiber combination. It is found that up to 36% addition of fly ash is acceptable with respect to the quality acceptance criteria of the final product, above 36% degrades the quality of the product which doesn’t meet the BIS: 459 standard requirements. Similarly, 10.38% of GGBS can be added without hampering the quality of the product. Finally, the best combination of raw mix design as per environmental sustainability point of view as well as the economic point of view has been suggested for the sustainable manufacturing of fiber cement roofing sheets.