Aggregation of carbon particles and effect on concrete properties

Abstract

Oil and gas organizations produce carbon particles as a by-product of their daily processes. These carbon particles are usually burned to be removed. However, burning causes carbon dioxide and harmful particles that impact the environment with greenhouse gases and affect health conditions. Therefore, this project is designed to study the feasibility of recycling carbon particles to replace sand in concrete applications.

The most pressing issue with introducing carbon particles in concrete is that they do not aggregate with each other in the presence of water. It is, therefore, key in this project to perform surface modification techniques to improve the aggregation of these carbon particles.

In this project, carbon particles were mixed with chemical binders like PAAS to enhance surface adhesion. A digital microscope and particle size analyser were used to test the samples to see if there was an increase in median particle size. POMEA is a chemical binder that showed potential through a significant increase in particle size – approx. 3 times - from the introduction of about 5wt% of the binder. Concrete preparation was conducted where POMEA/carbon particle samples and different wt.% of carbon particles were created. The POMEA/carbon particle sample did not come out as expected and could not be further studied with mechanical tests. However, compressive strength and flexural strength (via four-point bending test) of different % of carbon particle introduced concrete were measured and compared with reference samples. 10% carbon particle substitution for sand had compressive strength that performed higher than the control. The effect of ultraviolet light illumination on the carbon particles was also studied using mechanical tests. Results showed an increase in compressive and flexural strength when carbon particles are treated with UV light.

These findings provide a foundation for future work where UV light treatment and other surface treatment methods can be explored. Further exploration must be done for optimizing POMEA/carbon particle samples and the impressive compressive strength of 10% CP.