Effects of Palm Oil Fuel Ash Composition on the Properties and Morphology of Porcelain-palm Oil Fuel Ash Composite

The increasing amount of disposed palm oil fuel ash (POFA) from palm oil industries has recently attracted significant attention for an alternative sustainable application. This paper presents the effects of the addition of a treated POFA on porcelain in terms of bending and compressive strength, as well as weight composition. POFA obtained from a palm oil mill was treated via sieving, grinding and heating at a temperature of 600°C for 90 minutes in order to the remove unburnt carbon and to improve the silica content of the POFA. Pellets made with various proportions of porcelain and POFA were fabricated and sintered at a temperature of 1200°C. The results reveal that the maximum bending strength and the compressive strength occurred at 8 wt% addition of POFA, Porcelain containing POFA has about 7% weight reduction compared with normal porcelain.