It is also an I deal additive to decrease corrosion and enhance durability of concrete structures, it was found by researchers of the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) College of Engineering in Angeles City.
To fortify the transfer of the technology on rice husk ash cement, a memorandum of agreement has been forged between AUF, as the implementing agency, and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (DOST-PCIERD), as funding agency.
The PCIERD-AUF project will assist small-scale contractors, entrepreneurs, and rice mill owners in Central Luzon.
Dr. Lilia Austriaco, project leader, said the project also envisions to provide socioeconomic benefits to technology adopters and environmental management in Region 3.
Supply of rice husk will come from the V. del Rosario rice mill based in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.
Statistics compiled by the Biomass Atlas of the Philippines showed that rice husk produced in Central Luzon exceeded 250,000 metric tons annually from 1990 to 1999.
Annual rice husk production nationwide exceeds two million metric tons, which are mostly discarded as agricultural wastes.
When burned, 17 to 25 percent of rice husk’s weight remains as ash, which can be used as a pozzolan to replace as much as 50 percent of ordinary Portland cement.
PCIERD explained that silica contained in the ash reacts with lime in the presence of water to form calcium silicate hydrates that function as binder.
It added that the uses of rice husk in the country will be favorable because it is environment-friendly and cost-efficient.
In 1991, the University of the Philippines Building Research Services started studies on rice husk ash in collaboration with DOST.
The studies focused on the use of rice hull ash-lime/rice husk ash-portland cement for non-load bearing blocks intended for low-income family housing program.