PROPERTIES OF PEPPER WASTE BRICKS

HOLSON YU SHEN

Thesis is submitted to Faculty of Engineering,Universiti Malaysia Sarawak as a partial fulfilment of

the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Engineering with Honours(Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering)

2009

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK

R13a

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS TESIS

Judul: PROPERTIES OF PEPPER WASTE BRICKS

SESI PENGAJIAN: 2008/2009

Saya HOLSON YU SHEN (HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis * ini disimpan di Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.2. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk

tujuan pengajian sahaja. 3. Membuat pendigitan untuk membangunkan Pangkalan Data Kandungan Tempatan.4. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat salinan tesis ini

sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi. 5. ** Sila tandakan ( ) di kotak yang berkenaan

SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972).

TERHAD (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan).

TIDAK TERHAD

Disahkan oleh

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Alamat tetap: No. 12, Jalan Jelutong Barat,

96100 Sarikei, SarawakNama Penyelia

Tarikh: Tarikh:

CATATAN * Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah, Sarjana dan Sarjana Muda.** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak berkuasa/organisasi

berkenaan dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan tempoh tesis ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT dan TERHAD.

Approval Page

The Final Year Project attached here:

Title : Properties of Pepper Waste Bricks

Student Name : Holson Yu Shen

Matric No : 14136

has been read and approved by:

__________________________ ______________________

Ms Siti Nor Ain Musa Date

(Supervisor)

Dedicated to my family and friends.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supportive Final Year

Project supervisor, Ms Siti Nor Ain. I am very thankful for her advices, comments

and guidance all this while.

I also want to take this opportunity to thanks Mr Sabariman Bakar and Ms

Fazilah for giving me technical support for the project. Thanks to Mr Wong Liong

Pin, MD of Kitang Brick Work for providing the clay for the research.

Last but not least, I would like to thanks my family and friends for their

support and encouragement that helped me to overcome much hardship in my life.

i

ABSTRAK

Sisa lada boleh diproses semula dengan tanah liat untuk menghasilkan bahan yang berguna

untuk tujuan aspalan. Objektif kajian ini adalah bagi menyiasat ciri-ciri mekanikal bata

pernembusan air yang dibuat daripada sisa lada. Disebabkan sifat semulajadi bahan tersebut,

keupayaan sisa lada untuk membentuk liang telah disiasat. Dengan tujuan membandingkan

keputusan kajian, nisbah yang berbeza bagi sisa lada (0%, 2%, 5%, dan 10% oleh jisim)

telah diadunkan dengan tanah liat dan ‘abu terbang’. Kemudian, semua sampel bata yang

berbeza komposisi telah dibentuk, dikeringkan dan dibakar pada suhu 900 ºC. Penyerapan

air, ketertembusan dan kekuatan mampatan batu-bata yang telah siap diuji dan dibandingkan

dengan spesifikasi berkaitan. Sampel batu-bata didapati mempunyai penyerapan air antara

18.41% – 29.05%, ketertembusan pada kadar 5.278×10-10 m3s-1 dan kekuatan mampatan

antara 6.17 MPa – 30.81 MPa. Kekuatan kemampatan untuk sampel batu bata adalah

melebihi keperluan minimum standard Malaysia untuk batu bata yang berkualiti biasa, iaitu

tidak kurang dari 5.2 MPa. Keputusan kajian menunjukkan tambahan sisa lada akan

menghasilkan batu bata yang berliang dengan ciri-ciri mekanikal yang memuaskan.

ii

ABSTRACT

Pepper waste can be reprocessed with clay to produce useful materials for pavement

purpose. The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanical properties of water

penetrable bricks made from pepper waste. Due to the nature of the material, pore-forming

ability of pepper waste was investigated. In order to compare the results, different ratios of

the pepper waste (0%, 2%, 5%, and 10% by mass) were mixed with clay and fly ash. Then,

all the brick samples of different compositions were moulded, dried and lastly, fired at 900

ºC. The water absorption, penetrability and compressive strength of the fired bricks were

tested and compared with standard specifications. The brick samples have water absorption

between 18.41% – 29.05%, penetrability rate as fast as 5.278×10-10 m3s-1 and compressive

strength between 6.17 MPa – 30.81 MPa. The compressive strength for all samples passed

the minimum requirement by Malaysian Standard for the ordinary quality clay brick, which

is not less than 5.2 MPa. The results showed that pepper waste addition would produce

porous bricks with satisfactory mechanical properties.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT PAGE

ABSTRAK i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF EQUATIONS x

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Bricks 1

1.2 Overview of Water Penetrable Bricks 3

1.3 Application of Pepper Waste to Produce Water Penetrable Bricks 6

1.4 Objectives of the Project 8

1.5 Project Overview 8

1.6 Outline of Project Report 9

iv

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 10

2.2 Methods of Manufacturing Clay Bricks 10

2.2.1 Clay Winning 11

2.2.2 Clay Preparation 11

2.2.3 Moulding 12

2.2.4 Drying 13

2.2.5 Firing 14

2.3 Description of Clay Brick 15

2.4 Specification and Characteristics of Clay Bricks 16

2.4.1 Size Tolerance 17

2.4.2 Compressive Strength 18

2.4.3 Water Absorption 20

2.4.3.1 5-hour boiling test 21

2.4.3.2 24-hours cold immersion test 21

2.4.4 Durability 22

2.4.5 Aesthetic 24

2.5 Studies on Research Papers 26

2.5.1 Study on the Utilization of Kraft Pulp Production Residues in Clay

Brick Production 26

2.5.2 Study on the Effect of Organic Residues Addition on the Technological

Properties of Clay Bricks 28

v

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 31

3.2 Pepper Waste 31

3.3 Composition of Pepper Waste Bricks 33

3.4 Sample Production 34

3.5 Mould for the Bricks 35

3.6 Drying and Firing Process 38

3.7 Sample Testing 39

3.7.1 Scanning Electron Microscopy Analysis 40

3.7.2 Size Tolerance 41

3.7.3 Water Absorption 42

3.7.4 Water Penetrability 43

3.7.5 Compressive Strength 44

vi

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS, ANALYSIS & DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Introduction 46

4.2 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to Bricks Surface Texture 46

4.2.1 Surface Comparison between Brick Samples of

Different Composition 48

4.3 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Size Tolerance 49

4.4 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Water Absorption 51

4.5 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Water Penetrability 53

4.6 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Compressive Strength 54

4.6.1 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Compressive

Strength of Sample Size Bricks 54

4.6.2 Effect of Pepper Waste Addition to the Compressive

Strength of Standard Size Bricks 56

4.6.3 Effect of Dimensional Differences to the Compressive

Strength for Bricks before Water Absorption Test 58

4.6.4 Effect of Dimensional Differences to the Compressive

Strength for Bricks after Water Absorption Test 59

4.7 Summary of results 61

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusions 63

5.2 Limitations 64

5.3 Recommendations 65

REFERENCES 67

APPENDIX 70

vii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

2.1 Classification of bricks by compressive strength and water absorption

(BS 3921:1985) 19

2.2 Physical requirements for building bricks (ASTM C 62, 1990) 19

2.3 Classification of bricks by compressive strength and water absorption

(MS 76: 1972) 20

2.4 Levels of efflorescence in Malaysian Standard (MS 76: 1972) 23

2.5 Properties of fired samples 27

2.6 Equations used in Archimedes method 29

2.7 Physical properties of bricks sample 30

3.1 Composition of brick samples 34

4.1 Shrinkage for sample size bricks 49

4.2 Shrinkage for standard size bricks 49

4.3 Water penetrability test for sample size bricks 53

4.4 Mechanical properties table 61

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1.1 Mechanism of water penetrable bricks 5

1.2 Pepper plants 7

2.1 Overall productions of clay brick 11

2.2 Extrusion machine 13

2.3 Size of a clay brick 18

2.4 Colours of water permeable brick 24

2.5 Application of water permeable brick 24

3.1 Raw pepper waste 32

3.2 Grinded pepper wastes 32

3.3 Mixer 35

3.4 Design for mould fabricated 36

3.5 Measurement for the mould 36

3.6 Standard size mould 37

3.7 Dimension of brick samples 37

3.8 Temperature graph 38

3.9 Testing sequence 39

3.10 SEM, JEOL JSM-6701F 40

3.11 Water absorption test 42

3.12 Water penetrability test 43

3.13 Shimadzu Autograph AG-IS 45

ix

4.1 SEM image for 0% of pepper waste 47

4.2 SEM image for 5% of pepper waste 47

4.3 Comparison between samples 48

4.4 Shrinkage for sample size brick with different composition

of pepper waste 50

4.5 Shrinkage for standard size brick with different composition

of pepper waste 50

4.6 Comparison of water absorption level with different composition

of pepper waste 52

4.7 Average compressive strength for dry and wet sample size

bricks with different composition of pepper waste 54

4.8 Average compressive strength for dry and wet standard size

bricks with different composition of pepper waste 56

4.9 Average compressive strength for dry sample size and

dry standard size bricks with different composition of pepper waste 58

4.10 Average compressive strength for wet sample size and

wet standard size bricks with different composition of pepper waste 59

x

LIST OF EQUATIONS

EQUATION PAGE

3.1 Mass fraction of the pepper waste 34

3.2 Shrinkage during drying process 41

3.3 Shrinkage during firing process 41

3.4 Total shrinkage percentage 41

3.5 Percentage of water absorption 42

3.6 Water penetrability 43

3.7 Compressive strength 44

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Bricks

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in building material construction. It

is an important building block for buildings around the world. The use of bricks has

been found dated back to 7,500 B.C.[14] This shows that bricks have been existed in

our civilization long time ago. Bricks can be made from clay, shale (finely

sedimentary rock), soft slate (fine-grained metamorphic rock), calcium silicate (lime

mixed with quartz), and concrete or shaped from quarried stone. Clay is the most

common material used as it is easy to find and cheap. In the late-20th century, brick

was confined to low and medium-rise structures, as a slim decorative cladding over

concrete-steel buildings and for internal walls.

The bricks are continually use at large scale even though brick has been

restricted to low and medium size buildings as there are many constructions still

requiring it. As such, many researches had been done over the years to increase its

potential in terms of strength, thermal resistance, high melting point and porosity.

Many improvements have been done on the earlier sun-dried mud brick and the

result is the varieties of bricks with different composition these days. With the

2

advancement of bricks manufacturing methods and using different kind of materials,

the production of bricks is expected to meet the strong demand from the consumers

globally.

In year 2007, a new type of brick based on fly ash was invented by Dr. Henry

Liu, a retired civil engineer. [15] Fly ash is a residue of coal from power plants. Since

the manufacturing method uses a waste by-product rather than clay, and

solidification takes place under pressure rather than heat, it has important

environmental benefits. Meanwhile in United Kingdom, a technology company

Geofusion is producing bricks made of recycled glass and glass waste, which is

expensive to recycle. [16] The technology can also be used to make porous paving

stones and tiles. Water engineers stated that floods and water shortages caused by

urban developments would disrupt the flow of rainwater back to the land.

Geofusion's porous bricks will allow them to capture the rainwater falling on car

parks along with buildings walls and reuse it.

For the paving industry, it has been pioneered by Unilock Company, which

originally introduced the paving stone to North America back in 1972. Backed by a

commitment to quality and innovation, Unilock has grown to become the leading

manufacturer of paving stones and retaining walls in United States.[17] The company

produced different kind of pavers from classic paver like Hollandstone to permeable

pavers like Turfstone, Ecoloc and Uni Eco-Stone. However, these permeable pavers

do not function like water penetrable bricks. This is because the design of it is to

create small openings between the pavers providing drainage into the earth. Hence,

permeable refers to water moving through openings between pavers and aggregate.

3

While, porous refers to the material allowing water to move through it, as is the case

with porous bricks that has voids in the material.

1.2 Overview of Water Penetrable Bricks

Water penetrable brick is another type of bricks that is under the investigation

by many institutions. This type of brick is used for pavement purpose. Through its

porous property, water can flow into ground easily and sunshine is not necessary

needed to dry it up. This feature is considered supportive as it can minimize pooling

problem especially on pavement, parking lots, roads and ground of bazaar or wet

market. Pooling is a major setback in urban construction because for non-permeable

construction materials, such as bitumen and cement are indirectly destroying the

ability for the earth to retain water. Whenever it rains, the consequences will be

flooded rivers and during a drought, the riverbeds will be dried up.

Besides diffusing water into the earth, which providing flood assistance, these

construction materials are capable of contributing to temperature control. For normal

bricks, it can store the heat energy slowly from the sun during the day and continuing

to release heat for several hours after sunset. However, water penetrable brick have

cooling effect because of the evaporation process in the bricks. Evaporation takes

heat from the environment and thus, cools the surrounding temperature. With this

added benefit, the water penetrable bricks prove to be suitable for the hot and rainy

climate in Malaysia.

4

Currently, such bricks are significantly used in the construction of venue’s

paving, roads and squares in many Olympic stadiums in China for the 2008 Beijing

Olympic Games. For example, water permeable blocks make up much of the paving

at the Fengtai Softball venue. These allow rainwater to leak through to the

underground water collection systems. While, in the Olympic Media Village, at least

3,000 cubic metres of rainwater can be captured using water permeable bricks, pipes

and wells installed on roofs, roads and green areas.[18]

Water penetrable brick serves as a medium between the external surface and

the ground. From the voids of the bricks itself, it allows water from the external

surface to flow through the bricks and into the ground. Figure 1.1 illustrated the

overall concept of water penetrability using this type of brick. Besides reducing

overflow problem and heat insulation problem, water penetrable brick can prevent

raw sewage discharged into the rivers.

5

Figure 1.1 Mechanism of water penetrable bricks

The range of using water penetrable brick is within the part of urban, suburban

and metropolitan areas. In big cities where everything is congested, such brick play a

critical role in town irrigation structure. For the heat effect inside cities, using this

brick will reduce the environment warming and balancing the temperature between

the external surface and the ground.

Water penetrable bricks

Water droplets

Pores

Pores

Ground

6

1.3 Application of Pepper Waste to Produce Water Penetrable Bricks

In order to produce water penetrable bricks, organic material is required to mix

with clay brick to create pores. This is because organic material will decompose if it

is exposed to the high temperature or considerable heat, thus leaving pores. The idea

of using pepper waste totally fit the criteria and it is easy to be found locally as

pepper is mainly produced in Sarawak. Therefore, pepper waste can be manipulated

to facilitate the production of water penetrable bricks instead of being dumped or

burnt up.

Pepper that is the world most widely used spice for food seasoning is the fruit

of the tropical climbing vine, Piper nigrum L, which is illustrated in Figure 1.2. It is

native to southwestern India and is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical

regions. The commercial black peppercorn is the entire dried berry while the white

peppercorn is the seed. Peppercorn pungency is due to the presence of the alkaloids

piperine, chavicine and piperettine.

In Sarawak, pepper cultivation dates back to 1856 but more extensive planting

started in the 1900s. Nearly 98% of Malaysian pepper is produced in Sarawak. The

plantations in Sarawak are in small farms averaging 0.2 hectares, mostly planted by

rural dwellers in upland areas. Peppers from Sarawak are concentrated in certain area

of Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong and Sarikei Divisions. Malaysia now

ranks No. 5 after Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and Brazil in terms of pepper

production.[19]

7

About 70 % of Sarawak's pepper is exported as whole black pepper and the

remaining as white pepper, green pepper in brine, value-added pepper and pepper

products. The production in 2004 was about 20,000 tonnes.[19] This shows that the

wastes and residues from such production are also likely to be in tonnes. The waste

that was separated from the production is outer pericarp layer, damaged or broken

fruits, the unfertilized buds, dust, pepper hulls or shells removed during the

preparation of white pepper and lastly the stems or stalks of the plant.

Figure 1.2 Pepper plants [20]

8

1.4 Objectives of the Project

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Produce samples of water penetrable bricks using pepper waste for research

and testing.

2. Investigate the mechanical properties of water penetrable bricks produced.

3. Study the effect of pepper waste in the bricks produced.

4. Compare the properties of standard size bricks and sample size bricks.

1.5 Project Overview

This is a research and experimental based project, which aims to increase the

strength of pepper waste bricks. Fly ash was chosen to improve its strength

properties. This is because fly ash is pozzolanic in nature as it reacts with lime with

lime and water to form a cementitious compound. It is anticipated that the bricks

produced is more durable and have a better porosity. From this project, it validates

the draw on of pepper waste in production of porous bricks. Samples were produced

in different percentage of residue addition. Then, tests were done to determine the

bricks mechanical properties. The information and data collected can be used to

support the implementation of such bricks in the clay bricks industry. Lastly, a

review and evaluation for the overall research was carried out.

9

1.6 Outline of Project Report

This Final Year Project Report is split into five chapters: Introduction, Literature

Review, Methodology, Data and Analysis, and Discussion, Conclusion and

Recommendations. The brief information of each chapter is described as below:

Chapter 1 (Introduction) will introduce the background and provide the overview and

objectives of the project. Besides that, the sequence of the final year project report is

provided in this chapter as well.

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides summary and overview of the studies or

researches which are related to the project done. For example, processed waste tea,

kraft pulp residues and other organic waste are used as an additive to clay bricks to

generate porosity.

Chapter 3 (Methodology) provides the information of the methods used in the

project. This chapter provides techniques apply to do the experimental works as well

as how the specimen is produced for the research.

Chapter 4 (Results, Analysis and Discussions) will show the results analyzed from

the experiment and testing approach. It includes the discussion of the results.

Chapter 5 (Conclusions and Recommendations) summarizes the overall performance

of the project and recommendations for the future works.