Sustainable use of sugarcane bagasse ash and marble slurry dust in crusher sand based concrete

Production of ordinary Portland cement is consuming enormous energy and releases high carbon dioxide. Additionally, the use of river sand as fine aggregate has a direct effect on the erosion of river banks due to excess sand mining and hence, the use of river sand in concrete is banned in many developing countries. Hence, the assessment of concrete with blended cement and locally available alternative fine aggregates is the need for current construction practices. India becomes the ‐largest sugar producing country, a massive volume of bagasse ash (44,200 t/day) is discarded as waste. Similarly, marble processing plants dispose of marble slurry dust. An exploration of the use of agricultural and mining wastes in crusher sand‐based concrete is not yet reported. The current investigation focuses on the potential use of bagasse ash and marble slurry dust as pozzolan and alternative to crusher sand respectively in concrete and interlocking paver blocks. Compressive strength and capability against abrasion were investigated for bagasse ash and marble slurry dust blended concrete and paver block. Besides, water‐based tests were adopted to examine durability performance. Results from the study indicate an enhancement in abrasion resistance and a substantial reduction in permeability for blended concrete than control concrete. Optimum replacement levels were found to be 20% for bagasse ash and 25% for marble mining powder.