Recycling of rice straw from agricultural waste as aggregates in the production of lightweight interlocking bricks

Abstract

Massive amount of rice straw has been leaving over after harvesting every year. Burning is the simplest way for farmer to dispose those rice straws and causing an air pollution and PM 2.5 during the post-harvest season. Therefore, utilizing those straw as a part of construction material (block) could reduce that environmental impact. The study of using rice straw waste in the production of cement block, by the interlocking block technique, was thus investigated. It was found that the compressive strength of saturated surface dry condition (SSD) of the straw had a better property than that of as-received condition (AR) due to a more flexible movement and more sufficient water content for its internal curing. The water-cement mixture ratio suitable for using rice straw in the cement block bricks was 0.30 and the straw content was 2% by weight. This approach could be an environmentally friendly solution to promote the massive bio-based wastes onwards.