Rice Husk; A Potential Renewable Source of Belite Cement

Production of reactive belite cement from pozzolanic materials by sol-gel technique is economical due to low energy requirement. Accordingly a great interest exists in the development of technology for commercial production. Among various pozzolanic materials, good quality rice husk ash is attractive due to its high pozzolanicity. The present research was undertaken to investigate the development of belite cement from locally available rice husk agriculture waste. Rice husk ash with low carbon and low silica crystal contents is reactive in calcium hydro silicate systems. To this end extensive studies were conducted on the extraction of amorphous silica from rice husk. Potassium permanganate reacts with cellulose and organic components of rice husk and upon heating liberates oxygen. Batch experiments were conducted initially in order to establish suitable composition of potassium permanganate for pretreatment. The best dose of potassium permanganate for rice husk was established as one liter of 0.05N solution to 100 grams of rice husk. A prototype rice husk burner was designed to produce amorphous and pozzolanic silica from pretreated rice husk.