Sustainable Alternate Materials for Concrete Production from Renewable Source and Waste

Natural resources are being continuously extracted for the production of concrete which leads to degradation of the ecosystem. This is also a challenge for sustainability to save Nature. This study seeks to identify a suitable replacement material for river sand and stone aggregate for the sustainable utilization of renewable sources. Manufactured sand (M-sand) from industrial by-products and coconut shell (CS), an agricultural waste, are the resources selected as replacement materials for sustainability. This study uses M-sand as fine aggregate and CS coarse aggregate in place of river sand (R-sand) and crushed stone aggregate (CSA) for concrete production, respectively. To prove that M-sand and CS are sustainable alternate materials, this study focused on the microstructural characteristics on concrete constituents and CS aggregate and also conducted on concrete produced using R-sand, M-sand and CS. Also, this study focused on the microstructural characteristics and properties of conventional concrete (CC) and coconut shell concrete (CSC) produced using both R-sand and M-sand. Since this study aims to find sustainable alternative materials for R-sand and CSA by M-sand and CS, its properties are studied and compared since microstructural characterization is very significant for concrete compatibility. Microstructural studies revealed that the use of M-sand does not affect the microstructural properties of concrete compared to R-sand concrete and rather it improves the strength of concrete. A similar same trend was observed when CS was used with M-sand compared to CS used with R-sand. Hence, this study strongly suggests that the use of M-sand in its place of R-sand and CS in its place of CSA are sustainable alternatives for the production of concrete so that natural resources can be saved and hence sustainability could be sustained.