Fabrication of Composite Material Using Bagasse Ash and Carbonized Bagasse by Spark Plasma Sintering

Bagasse was obtained after squeezing the sugar cane. In sugar factories, bagasse is burned as fuel for boiler machines. Therefore, there remains lots of bagasse ash every year. Bagasse ash including silica and carbonized bagasse were considered as ceramics material, and mechanical properties of composite using bagasse ash and carbonized bagasse fabricated by spark plasma sintering were investigated. By changing the content ratio between bagasse ash and carbonized bagasse and carbonized bagasse fiber length, the bending strength and flexural modulus were compared with each other. By utilizing the phenomenon that bagasse ash has a melting temperature over 1323K, the sintering temperature of composite was performed at 1423K. The bending strength with content weight ratio of bagasse ash and carbonized bagasse of 1:2 showed the high value of 66MPa. Especially, the composite using carbonized long bagasse fiber showed the highest value for bending strength and flexural modulus. The electrical resistance ratios of composites of 1:2 and 1:3 showed the minimum values and constant trend. Finally, the electrical resistance ratio of composite became about same value as carbonized body only.