Abstract
The application of agricultural and aquaculture waste in concrete greatly reduces the pressure on the ecological environment brought by traditional concrete production. The use of agricultural and aquaculture wastes as cement replacement, aggregate replacement and fiber reinforcement has showed great potential. Making full use of these wastes can help the development of sustainable concrete. This paper provides an objective evaluation and summary of agricultural waste and aquaculture waste in green concrete. Agricultural waste is divided into natural plant fiber, agricultural waste ash and multi-application waste according to useful function and alternative methods, such as sisal fiber, olive waste ash, and bamboo. Aquaculture waste mainly refers to some shells such as oyster shell. This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of agricultural and aquaculture waste concrete applications that have been reported and shows how different agricultural and aquaculture wastes are made in concrete. The selection of appropriate treatment methods and usage scenarios is extremely important for agricultural and aquaculture waste concrete, which can determine whether the concrete has reliable performance. This paper will lay a foundation for the progress of waste concrete and provide reliable help for the development of environmental protection concrete.
Introduction
Concrete is one of the most used building materials in the world. The global annual concrete consumption is close to 17.5 billion tons, in which the required aggregate and cement are about 13 billion tons and 2.6 billion tons, respectively (). Excessive use of quarrying and mining to collect aggregates leads to the exhaustion of natural resources and directly causes negative impacts on the ecological environment, such as landscape destruction and ecosystem destruction, and pollutions (). At the same time, cement, the main component of mortar, account for 74–81% of the total carbon dioxide emissions from concrete production (). Cement production processes emit about 1 billion tons of CO2 a year (Salmabanu et al., 2019).
In order to mitigate environmental damage by concrete industry, variable alternatives for both aggregate and cement have been investigated extensively in the past decades. For instance, recycled aggregates and fine powders from waste concrete could be employed for preparation of fresh concrete with satisfying performance. Industrial wastes such as fly ash (Singh and Siddique, 2015), slag (Mo et al., 2015), bottom ash (Zhang and Poon, 2015), etc. have also been widely used in concrete. As an emerging substitute of cement, limestone calcined clay cements have drawn more and more attentions from building material industry ().
Agricultural waste refers to the waste discharged from agricultural production, agricultural product processing, livestock and poultry breeding, and rural residents. This type of waste accounts for 30% of the world’s total agricultural output (Salmabanu et al., 2019). In most cases, agricultural waste will be burned or landfilled, causing land pollution and affecting the ecological environment. China is the main producer of bivalve molluscs, with an output of 10.35 million tons in 2010, accounting for 70.8% of the global bivalve production and 80% of the global bivalve mollusc aquaculture production. From a chemical point of view, mollusk shells are rich in CaCO3, which accounts for about 95% of their composition (Salmabanu et al., 2019). In order to obtain better quality waste materials, the waste shells need to be properly treated, such as high temperature heating and crushing to obtain the appropriate fineness.
In recent years, the use of agricultural and aquaculture waste as a substitute for concrete ingredients are showing an increasing trend. Compared to the existing reviews, more types of agricultural waste and aquaculture waste should be reviewed, especially from the aspect of utilization ways, besides just waste types.
1) This review classifies agricultural waste into three categories: natural plant fiber, agricultural waste ash, and multi-application waste (Figure 1A). Among them, natural plant fiber is a material that is original plant in nature and can be directly extracted or applied to concrete production. Agricultural waste ash is the waste produced in the daily agricultural production process, and processed by calcination and other means to form a material with pozzolanic properties. Multi-application waste is the waste remaining in the process of agricultural production or after human consumption, which can be used in concrete research in the form of blocks, sand, and ash.
2) Since generally speaking, aquaculture business is subordinate to agriculture, the aquaculture waste is also reviewed in this paper. Aquaculture wastes (see Figure 1B) refer to different kinds of shells which are easy to obtain in seaside cities and large farms. These shells can also be used as aggregates and ash in concrete preparation.
FIGURE 1
This paper focuses on the workability, mechanical properties and durability of the concrete prepared by using agricultural and aquaculture wastes. The study on the advantages and disadvantages of these wastes in concrete preparation would provide references for the waste applications and green building materials.
Agricultural Waste
A large number of studies in recent years have shown that agricultural waste can be used as:
1) Supplementary cementitious materials. For example, rice husk and wheat straw husk can be used as pozzolanic materials, which could react with free lime generated by hydration process of clinker silicate, making the cement have a high environmental resistance ().
2) Used as cement-based reinforced material. For example, Long arranged sisal fibers can be used as reinforcement materials for thin cement-based laminates (Silva et al., 2010) and long bamboo fiber has high durability in cement matrix (Shafigh et al., 2014).
3) Replace part of aggregate. Waste materials such as palm shells and coconut shells can completely or partially replace the role of traditional aggregates in concrete, achieving energy conservation and reducing the pressure of the construction industry on the environment (Pacheco-Torgal and Jalali, 2011).
Natural Plant Fiber
In recent years, natural plant fiber is widely studied in the manufacture of concrete in order to strengthen the performance of concrete. Natural plant fibers can significantly enhance the toughness and ductility of cement based composites, whilst unfortunately the durability performance in the high alkaline cement matrix raise great concerns (Ramakrishna and Sundararajan, 2005a). In addition, nature plant fibers have the limitations of water swelling and shrink after drying which would comprise the fiber-reinforced effect. The substitution and mixing amount of natural plant fibers in concrete in other literatures are shown in Figure 2. The physical properties of several natural plant fibers are shown in Table 1, and the summary of usage of natural plant fiber in concrete in Table 2.
FIGURE 2
TABLE 1
| Fiber type | Fiber length (mm) | Fiber diameter (mm) | Tensile strength (N/mm2) | Elongation (%) | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sisal | 180–600 | 0.10–0.50 | 31–221 | 14.8 | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005b) |
| Date palm | 300–500 | 0.2–0.8 | 50 | 9.0–19.4 | |
| Jute | 128–1,525 | 0.04–0.35 | 29–312 | 19.0 | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005b) |
| Hemp | 40 | 0.016–0.05 | 600–700 | ||
| Rice straw | 0.9 | 0.0053 | Xie et al. (2015) | ||
| Ramie | 4–16 | 0.048 | 500 | 18.2 | Wang (2013) |
| Flax | 10–38 | Xu (2013) | |||
| Hibiscus | 163–1,527 | 0.04–0.16 | 18–180 | 12.4 | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005b) |
Physical properties of natural fibers.
TABLE 2
| Waste products | Usage | Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sisal | Cement | Plastic and restrained shrinkage reduced | Romildo et al. (2005) |
| Drying shrinkage increased | Silva et al. (2010), Romildo et al. (2005) | ||
| Impact resistance improved | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005a) | ||
| Toughness improved | Silva et al. (2010) | ||
| Date palm | Concrete | Compressive strength decreased | , |
| Ductility improved | |||
| Density decreased | |||
| Thermal conductivity reduced | |||
| Jute | Concrete | Compressive strength and flexural performance increased | Zhang et al. (2012), () |
| Hemp | Concrete | Enhancing the fracture energy of concrete | |
| Rice straw | Cement | Decrease in bulk density | Xie et al. (2015) |
| Increased bending strength | |||
| Porosity and water absorption increase with the increase of fiber content | |||
| Increased fracture toughness | |||
| Ramie | Concrete | After alkali treatment, it can effectively enhance the mechanical properties of concrete | Wang (2013) |
| Flax | Cement | Improve the tensile strength of mortar | Xu (2013) |
| Hibiscus | Cement | Improve impact resistance of cement mortar | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005b) |
Usage of natural plant fiber in concrete.
Sisal Fiber
Sisal (see Figure 3) is a hard-leaf fiber crop that grows in the tropics. It is the most widely used natural plant hard fiber in the world today. The world’s annual production of sisal fiber can reach about 4.5 million tons (). For 1 ton of commercially used sisal fibers, 3 ton of residual fibers have been dumped. Sisal fiber has tough texture, wear resistance, salt alkali resistance and corrosion resistance. Sisal fibers under different environmental conditions show better tensile properties than other fibers (Ramakrishna and Sundararajan, 2005a), and has important application value in enhancing the performance of concrete.
FIGURE 3
Sisal fiber (see Figure 3) is low cost and easy to obtain. The incorporation of sisal fiber can significantly improve the early strength of concrete, since sisal fiber can effectively inhibit the growth of micro cracks (). Adding short sisal fiber can also significantly reduce the free plastic shrinkage of cement mortar (Romildo et al., 2005). It should be noted that Sisal fiber is hydrophilic with relatively high porosity as shown in Figure 3, thus it can absorb a large quantity of water, severally weakening their binding with cement matrix. Such fiber-cement interfacial interaction can be enhanced via various strategies. For instance, Yan reported that the surface modification by silane and other coupling agents can change its hydrophilic properties, improving the interfacial properties. The surface roughness of the fiber can be enhanced by per-manganate and alkali treatment, thereby increasing the surface area in contact with the matrix. The sisal fiber can be heat treated to improve the bonding performance between the sisal fiber and the matrix and reduce the water absorption rate ().
The morphology of sisal fiber could also affect its performance in mixed materials. Long-arranged sisal fiber as a thin cement-based laminates material shows potential in semi-structural and structural applications of cement-based materials (Romildo et al., 2005). The shape of sisal fiber has an important influence on the bonding strength and interface properties of cement-based reinforced material ().
Date Palm Fiber
Date palm, which is native to west Asia and north Africa, is one of the most planted palm trees in the world. Date palm trees could provide four types of fibers: leaf fibers in the pedicel, leaf fibers in the stem, wood waste fibers in the trunk and surface fibers around the trunk (). The surface fiber of date palm has the highest tensile strength in the four types of fibers. The high-performance fiber contained in date palm provides an opportunity for the development of low-cost and high-efficiency building materials. The presence of date palm fiber improves the cracking strength, toughness and performance of concrete after cracking ().
However, the application of these plant fibers in concrete is plagued by durability issues in alkaline environments (). The surface fibers of date palm trees (see Figure 3) are severely affected by alkaline solution. For example, The surface fibers of date palm trees keep 69% of the original strength after being placed in the Ca(OH)2 solution for 6 months ().
The addition of date palm wood fiber can decrease the density of mortar, and improve the thermal insulation performance as well, which plays a huge potential in the research of new building energy-saving bio-composite materials. For example, Benmansour found that adding 5–15% date palm fiber makes the composite material meet the thermal and mechanical requirements of building materials ().
Jute
Jute is widely cultivated in the area south of the Yangtze river in China. The fiber contained in jute has the characteristics of high tensile strength and low density. At the same time, jute fiber is also one of the lowest cost plant fibers and has good renewable properties. Among various natural plant fibers, jute fiber has a long continuous length. From the perspective of processing technology and availability, jute fiber is an ideal material among natural plant fibers to replace various synthetic fibers for composite reinforcement ().
The incorporation of natural plant fibers has made a great contribution to the improvement of concrete mechanical properties. In particular, compared to other natural plant fibers, jute fiber has a long continuous length, good processing technology, high strength and low elongation characteristics, Jute fiber can effectively enhance the compressive performance of concrete and has good crack resistance when the dosage is 0.9 kg/m3 and a certain length (40 mm in the test) (Zhang et al., 2012). It has been reported that, when the jute fiber content of concrete is 0.5–0.6 kg/m3, the compressive and flexural strength of the concrete is enhanced most significantly (). However, the length of the mixed fiber in concrete should not be too long (shorter than 40 mm in the test), otherwise the enhancement effect of the concrete compressive performance will be greatly reduced (Zhang et al., 2012).
In terms of the frost durability of jute fiber concrete, conducted a freeze-thaw cycle test on jute fiber concrete mixed with different mass ratios and found that the concrete without jute fiber has lower frost resistance than the concrete mixed with jute fiber. When the mass ratio of jute fiber is 0.9%, the mass loss rate and relative mass loss rate of concrete are the minimum.
Others
Hemp and Flax are the earliest natural plant fibers used by humans which contain rich cellulose and show the characteristics of strong tensile force, good fineness, weak electrical conductivity, fast water absorption and dispersion, and high expansion rate. Merta () demonstrated that the fracture energy of hemp fiber reinforced concrete was 70% higher than that of ordinary concrete. Zhang (Zhang, 2011) used a mixture of loose flax, bentonite, and cement to successfully solve the problem of slurry leakage in the cofferdam impervious wall of Jin’anqiao hydropower Station. Adding flax fiber to ordinary cement mortar can effectively reduce the cracking caused by restrictive plastic shrinkage resulting from its good hydrophilic properties (Xu, 2013). In addition, ramie also known as “Chinese grass” by the world, is one of the important fiber crops in ancient China. The alkali-treated ramie fiber can effectively enhance the mechanical properties of concrete and prevent cracking when the content reaches a certain amount (Wang, 2013).
Besides hemp plant, rice straw from the wastes left after rice used is also a good source of natural fiber. Compared with fiber-free composite materials, the mechanical properties of rice straw fiber reinforced cement-based composite materials have been significantly improved. The addition of rice straw fibers reduces the bulk density of the composite material by 12.4–37.3% and increases the bending strength by 24.3% (Xie et al., 2015). As a very common shrub flower species in Asia, hibiscus could also provide rich natural fiber to reinforce cement-based composite materials. Researchers (Ramakrishna and Sundararajan, 2005a) found that the addition of 2.5% hibiscus fiber by weight of cement can improve the impact resistance of cement mortar. The hibiscus fiber can maintain 0%, 10–20%, and 20% of the original strength after alternating dry and wet in saturated lime, NaOH and fresh water for 60 days (Ramakrishna and Sundararajan, 2005b).
Agricultural Waste Ash
Agricultural waste ash refers to the ash material produced by the calcination method. Most agricultural waste ash has the characteristics of volcanic ash, and can be used as the pozzolan material in mortar and concrete to achieve the expected effect, and in addition to improve the performance of mortar and concrete. The substitution and mixing amount of agricultural waste ash in concrete in other literatures are shown in Figure 4. The usage of agricultural waste ash in concrete is summarized in Table 3.
FIGURE 4
TABLE 3
| Waste Products (ash) | Usage | Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive | Cement | Residual strength upon exposure to heat increased | |
| Workability reduced | |||
| Setting time decreased | |||
| Compressive strength decreased | |||
| Flexural strength decreased | |||
| Sand | Workability reduced | ||
| Compressive strength increased | |||
| Flexural strength increased | |||
| Fiber | Water demand increased compared to conventional filler | ||
| Compressive strength increased compared to conventional filler | |||
| Banana leaves | Cement | Compressive strength increased | |
| Tensile strength increased | |||
| Elephant grass | Cement | No effect on compressive strength | |
| No effect on MOE | |||
| No effect on water absorption | |||
| Fiber | Minimal increase in fracture energy | ||
| Bagasse | Cement | Improved mechanical properties | |
| Improve the material’s resistance to chloride ion penetration | Rukzon and Chindaprasirt (2012) | ||
| Wood waste | Cement | Intensity increases with age | Siddique (2012) |
| Best compressive strength | Ramos et al. (2013) | ||
| Durability is improved | |||
| Increased carbonation | |||
| Has higher corrosion resistance |
Usage of agricultural waste ash in concrete.
Olive Waste Ash
Olive waste contains olive pulp, peel and residual oil. Approximately 3 ton of pruning residues are generated each year from 1 ha of olive trees, most of which are disposed inconsiderately. Olive ash containing about 22% SiO2 and 42% lime can be produced by burning large amounts of olive waste, and it is a new type of auxiliary cementing material ().
In the production of concrete, although olive ash exerts good compaction performance and improves the compressive strength of concrete, it requires relatively high water consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to add additives to control its high water absorption (). At the same time, the high-temperature performance of the concrete mixed with olive ash is better than that of ordinary concrete. In addition the excellent high-temperature resistance of olive ash makes it have the potential to be a thermal insulation material ().
Incorporating olive ash material into cementitious mortar can improve the performance of the cementitious mortar, since it helps reduce the porosity of the bonding interface. As a partial replacement of sand, the compressive and flexural strength of mortar increase with the increase of olive ash content (see Figure 5) (). However, as a partial replacement of cement, the compressive and flexural strength of mortar will be decreased with the increase of olive ash content, since the amount of cementitious materials is reduced. In addition, compared with autoclaved curing, wet-cured olive mortar exhibits better compressive and flexural strength.
FIGURE 5
Banana Leaf Ash
Bananas with extremely large leaves are mostly grown in tropical and subtropical regions. According to statistics, in 2012, banana plants produced approximately 10 million tons of banana leaf ash (Salmabanu et al., 2019). Banana leaves must be properly burned in open air at the temperature about 900°C for 24 h to obtain high-performance banana leaf ash (
As a pozzolan material, banana leaf ash can effectively improve the mechanical properties of the mortar.
Elephant Grass Ash
As a tropical grass native in Africa, elephant grass (see Figure 6) requires very little nutrients and water to grow, but can produce large amounts of ash after burning and grinding. Since, elephant grass contains a large amount of amorphous SiO2, this ash has great potential to become a pozzolan material.
FIGURE 6

Compressive strength (fc) and young’s modulus (E) of concretes up to 28 days of curing (
The control of combustion parameters, such as temperature, heating rate and soaking time are the main factors that determine the amount and structural state of SiO2 in elephant grass.
Bagasse Ash
Bagasse ash burned after sugar production at a certain temperature is a promising pozzolanic material that can be used as an auxiliary material for Portland cement in mortar and concrete (
From the comprehensive experiment conducted by
The difference in the results of these studies may result from the different craft and material selection for the production of bagasse ash. However, it can be proved that the incorporation of bagasse ash can significantly improve the performance of concrete.
Wood Waste Ash
The residue produced by burning wood waste such as sawdust, sawdust, and bark is called wood waste ash. Burning wood waste will produce an average of 6–10% wood waste ash (Siddique, 2012). According to reports, about 70% of wood waste ash is landfilled, 20% is used as a soil supplement, and the remaining 10% is used for other purposes including construction materials, metal recycling and pollution control (Siddique, 2012). As a building material, the sum of three oxides SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3 in wood waste ash exceeds the minimum limit of fly ash. In addition, the chloride contained in wood waste ash is far below the required standard, and the other obtained parameters are almost all conducive to the performance of coagulation (Ramos et al., 2013).
The physical and chemical properties of wood waste ash will be affected by factors such as tree species, origin, and burning method. In terms of concrete performance, the partial replacement of cement by wood waste ash would adversely affect concrete slump. As the content of wood waste ash increases, the water absorption capacity of concrete increases, but the strength of concrete decreases slightly. It was reported that the concrete can reach the ideal state, when 20% of cement is replaced by wood waste ash (Siddique, 2012).
Wood waste ash could be used as part of the cement substitute material in mortar. The compressive strength decreases with the increase of wood waste ash content, but it increases with the extension of the curing time (Ramos et al., 2013). The carbonization depth of wood waste ash cement mixture is greater than that of Portland cement mixture, and the carbonization effect increases with the increase of wood waste ash content. This may be due to CH reduction and consequent pH reduction (
In addition, wood waste ash can effectively inhibit the harmful expansion caused by the alkali-silicon reaction whilst the increasing content of wood waste ash can reduce the expansion rate. However, due to delayed hydration of free and dead-burned CaO and MgO, the ash content greater than or equal to 20% will lead to severe swelling (Ukrainczyk et al., 2016). Compared with ordinary concrete, the concrete containing wood waste ash has higher corrosion resistance when exposed to monoacid solution. When the concrete is under dibasic acid solution corrosion, the situation is just the opposite. The mineral admixture mixed with 20% wood waste ash and 80% fly ash can significantly improve the chloride ion diffusion resistance of concrete at the level of 25% cement substitution (
Multi-Application Waste
Multi-application waste material can be interpreted as the waste remaining in the process of agricultural production or human consumption, which can be reused in the form of lumps, sand, ash, fiber etc. in mortar and concrete production. The summary of multi-application waste is shown in Table 4. The detailed usage and mixing amount of multi-application waste in mortar and concrete is shown in Table 5 and Figure 7.
TABLE 4
| Multi-application waste | Substitution | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate | Pozzolanic material | Fiber material | |
| Bamboo | √ | √ | |
| Straw | √ | √ | √ |
| Rice husk | √ | √ | |
| Corn | √ | √ | √ |
| Coconut shell | √ | √ | |
| Palm shell | √ | √ | |
| Rubber | √ | √ | |
Alternative application of multi-application waste.
TABLE 5
| Waste products | Usage | Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bamboo | Cement | Water demand increased | |
| Setting time increased | |||
| Decrease in 7 days compressive strength | |||
| Similar strength as control concrete at 28 and 90 days | |||
| Water demand increased | Umoh and Odesola (1979) | ||
| Final setting time increased | |||
| Higher compressive strength at 5e10% replacement levels | |||
| Porosity increased | |||
| Bulk density decreased | |||
| Fiber | Water demand increased | Xie et al. (2015) | |
| Porosity and water absorption increased | |||
| Bulk density decreased | |||
| Flexural strength decreased with up to 2% fiber; increased between 2 and 8% and decreased beyond 8% | |||
| Fracture toughness increased | |||
| Deflection increased | |||
| Porosity and water absorption decreased with 6–8% fiber; increased at 10–12% | |||
| Flexural strength highest for 8% fiber | |||
| Modulus of elasticity highest for 6% fiber | |||
| Compressive strength increased with 0.5% fiber | Ramaswamy et al. (1983) | ||
| Impact energy increased with 1.0% fiber | |||
| Improved ductility | |||
| Wheat straw | Cement | 28 days compressive strength decreased; similar 180 days strength as control for 8% replacement level | |
| Flexural strength increased | |||
| Improved resistance to sulfate attack in terms of compressive strength | |||
| Durability towards freeze-thaw damage improved | |||
| Sand | Flow decreased | ||
| Initial setting time increased | |||
| Compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths increased | |||
| Thermal cycling resistance improved | |||
| Compressive strength increased | |||
| Sulfate resistance improved | |||
| Abrasion resistance improved | |||
| Water penetration depth reduced | |||
| Fiber | Minimal increase in fracture energy | ||
| Rice husk | Cement | Effectively resist damage during freeze-thaw cycles | Zhang (2015) |
| Improved resistance to chloride ion penetration | |||
| Enhanced resistance to acid corrosion | |||
| Both initial setting and final setting time of cement are prolonged | Wang et al. (2017) | ||
| Sand | Can be used as a mixed material of structural lightweight concrete and thermal insulation concrete to achieve insulation | Shafigh et al. (2014) | |
| Corncob | Cement | Workability reduced | |
| Early strength decreased | |||
| Strength gain increased | |||
| Initial and final setting times increased | |||
| Sand | Compressive strength increased | ||
| Sulfate resistance improved | |||
| Abrasion resistance improved | |||
| Water penetration depth reduced | |||
| Coarse aggregate | Comparable thermal properties with expanded clay lightweight concrete | Pinto et al. (2012) | |
| Coconut shell | Coarse aggregate | Reduce large deflection of plastic shrinkage cracks | |
| Fiber | The initial strength retention rate is higher than other fibers | Ramakrishna and Sundararajan (2005a) | |
| Palm shell | Coarse aggregate | Improved elastic modulus and toughness modulus | |
| Higher ductility and aggregation interlocking characteristics | |||
| Cement | Improve the hardening performance and durability of concrete | Safiuddin et al. (2011) | |
| Rubber | Coarse aggregate | Compressive strength is suitable | Muthusamy et al. (2014) |
Usage of multi-application waste in concrete.
FIGURE 7

Substitution and mixing amount of multi-application waste in concrete in other literatures.
Bamboo
The annual production of bamboos all over the world is about 20 million ton, mainly in Asia and Latin America. Bamboo (see Figure 7) with the advantages of good mechanical properties, high flexibility, fast growth, light weight, and low purchase cost, is a promising building material (van der Lugt et al., 2006).
In the 1980s, Ramaswamy et al. (1983) verified the possibility of bamboo fiber blending into concrete. Compared with ordinary concrete, the impact strength of bamboo fiber concrete is effectively improved and the shrinkage characteristics are significantly reduced. Xie et al. (2015) produced a cement paste mixed with bamboo fiber for performance tests. With the increase of time, the accumulation of Ca(OH)2 on the surface of the bamboo fiber is increased, which significantly reduces the fracture performance of the composite material. The bamboo fiber concrete shows a sufficiently high stability and the optimal fiber content is 16%.
Bamboo leaves can be calcined at 600°C to make bamboo leaf ash, which contains 78.7% of SiO2. Tested by the volcanic ash activation method, bamboo leaf ash is a highly active volcanic ash (
Bamboo also has the potential to replace steel bars to reinforce concrete structures. Through a series of performance tests, the bamboo slat concrete (see Figure 7) shows good performance. Treating bamboo as a reinforcement material, the bearing capacity of the beam could also be significantly improved (
Straw
Straw containing the properties of volcanic ash is a multi-purpose renewable biological resource. In addition, most straws are rich in crude fibers that could be used to improve the performance of concrete.
Wheat Straw
It is estimated that out of the world’s annual cereal production of 880 million ton, 550 million ton is wheat straw. The content of SiO2 in the ash of wheat straw after incineration is about 73%, indicating the pozzolanic properties. The wheat straw ash produced by burning wheat straw at 670°C has better pozzolanic activity than that by burning at 570°C (
Incorporating wheat straw ash into concrete as a partial replacement of ordinary cement can improve the durability of concrete against the deterioration of freeze-thaw cycles as shown in Figure 8 (
FIGURE 8

Effect of WSA content on the durability factor of concrete (
Concrete made of wood waste chips, barley straw, and sand is a kind of concrete that is both thermally insulating and load-bearing which can be used for exterior walls in arid environments or other components (
Rape Straw
Rape straw has high crude fiber content and the fibrous structure of the wood part resulting in the characteristics of hard surface texture, fine microstructure, high tensile strength and good toughness. The thermal conductivity of rape straw fiber is much lower than that of other fibers. After adding rape straw fiber into concrete, the thermal conductivity of the concrete specimens is significantly decreased. This decrease becomes even severer with the increase of the rape straw fiber (Zeng et al., 2018).
Rice Husk
Rice husk ash by burning rice husk which not only is low cost, but also has good pozzolanic effect and micro-aggregate effect, can be used to improve the strength and durability of cement matrix and concrete (Zheng et al., 2018).
With the increase of rice husk ash content, the initial setting and final setting time of the cement mixture are prolonged. When rice husk ash is ground for 45 min and the content is 10%, the setting time of the mixture is close to that of cement (Wang et al., 2017).
For concrete, the addition of rice husk ash can significantly improve the internal structure of concrete and make it more compact, thereby enhancing the mechanical properties, frost resistance, chloride ion penetration resistance and acid erosion resistance of rice husk ash concrete (Zhang, 2015). In terms of mechanical properties, rice husk ash fine particles can fill the internal pores of concrete, whilst the rice husk ash contains reactive amorphous SiO2, which will react with Ca(OH)2 generated after cement hydration to increase the strength of concrete. This activity is mainly reflected in the later stage of cement hydration (Wang et al., 2017). When the mixing amount of rice husk ash reaches 20%, the reinforcement effect of rice husk ash on concrete is the strongest (Zhang, 2015).
In terms of durability, the concrete mixed with rice husk ash can effectively resist damage during freeze-thaw cycles, and the relative dynamic elastic modulus can be basically guaranteed to be greater than 60% at 200 freeze-thaw cycles (Zhang, 2015). Rice husk ash fills the gap among cement particles and fly ash particles, increasing the density between the powders, and improving the resistance to chloride ion penetration of concrete (Wang et al., 2017). When the concrete mixed with 20% rice husk ash, the anti-chloride ion penetration performance of the concrete is exerted to the best (Zhang, 2015). Mixing rice husk ash can also effectively enhance the acid resistance of concrete, whose compressive strength loss rate, mass loss rate and thickness loss rate are all lower than the ordinary concrete specimens. Similarly, when the rice husk ash content is 20%, the resistance to acid erosion of concrete is the best (Zhang, 2015).
In addition, rice husk could also be used to replace natural fine and coarse aggregates in the mixture of structural lightweight concrete and heat-insulating concrete to achieve the purpose of insulation (Shafigh et al., 2014).
Corncob
Corncob has the characteristics of uniform organization, suitable hardness, good toughness, strong water absorption and good wear resistance. Corncob ash by burning corncob under certain conditions exerts good pozzolanic properties (see Figure 7) whose content of SiO2 is more than 65% (Shafigh et al., 2014).
As the content of corncob ash increases, the SiO2 content in the mixture increases at the same time, therefore corncob ash concrete needs more water to make the mixture workable (
With the increase of corncob ash content, more SiO2 can react with the lime produced during cement hydration, thereby producing more cementitious material, which helps to improve the compressive strength of the concrete (
At the same time, corncob particles also have great potential as aggregates for lightweight concrete. Pinto et al. (2012) found that corncob concrete (see Figure 7) prepared with a ratio of 6:1:1 (corncob particles: Portland cement: water) shows acceptable mechanical properties. Compared corncob concrete with the concrete made of expanded clay, the density and thermal characteristics of corncob concrete are consistent with those of expanded clay concrete, except for the compressive strength. This may be related to the corncob particle size, component ratio and curing time. At present, corncob concrete is only suitable for non-structural applications, and further research is needed on how to improve the strength of corncob concrete.
Coconut Shell
Coconut shell is one of the most promising agricultural wastes and can be used as coarse aggregate in concrete production. Compared with palm shell (PKSC), the compressive strength of coconut shell concrete (CSC) is higher (see Figure 9). From an economic point of view, coconut shell is also more suitable as a substitute for concrete aggregate than palm shell (Olanipekim et al., 2006).
FIGURE 9

Comparison compressive strength of CSC and PKSC of mix proportion 1:1:2 at 28 days curing (Olanipekim et al., 2006).
Theoretically speaking, coconut shells can replace natural coarse aggregates to improve the compressive strength of concrete. However, due to the shape, rough texture and excessive density of coconut shell, the strength of coconut shell concrete is difficult to exert. Therefore, the appropriate amount of coconut shell can be used to prepare workable concrete with good strength (Tomas and Ganiron, 2013).
Compared with ordinary concrete, coconut shell concrete has higher ductility and almost the same crack width under the initial cracking torque with corresponding reinforcement ratio (
FIGURE 10

SEM images on CS specimens (
Research shows that fly ash partially replacing cement, coconut shell replacing coarse aggregate, and cullet glass sand replacing fine aggregate could be used to make economical and environmentally friendly concrete which could be used for lightweight structures (Phatak et al., 2014). Even though coconut shells show good mechanical properties in concrete, it is still necessary to conduct sufficient research on coconut shell concrete before practical application, especially in terms of durability (Reddy et al., 2014). Besides, the fiber extracted from coconut shell can be used in mixing cementitious mortar. The initial strength retention rate of coconut shell fiber is higher than other fibers after exposure to different media for a certain period of time.
Palm Shell
Palm shell (see Figure 7) is discarded during the extraction of palm fruit (Olanipekim et al., 2006). Annually 4 million tons of oil palm shell produced by Malaysia which is expected to rise further by the year 2020. Since 1984, a lot of research has been carried out on palm shell as a lightweight aggregate. As aggregate, palm shell has very good wear resistance, which is about 80% lower than traditional coarse aggregates. In addition, the impact value and crush value of palm shell are low, indicating its high shock absorption capacity (Shafigh et al., 2014). Under scanning electron microscopy, it can be seen that there are a large number of micro-pores with a size of 16–24 μm on the outer surface of palm shell (see Figure 11).
FIGURE 11

Micro-pores on outer surface (
For palm shell concrete, the different curing conditions will also affect the compressive strength of palm shell concrete. According to reports, the ideal curing condition is full water curing (Shafigh et al., 2011b). Under full water curing conditions, it can produce palm shell high-strength lightweight concrete with a 28 days compressive strength about 43–48 MPa and a dry density about 1870–1990 kg/m3. Palm shell high-strength lightweight concrete is very sensitive to insufficient curing, so at least 7 days of wet curing is required (Shafigh et al., 2011b). When reducing the water-cement ratio, increasing the palm hull content or reducing the cement content, the sensitivity of palm hull concrete under insufficient curing conditions can also be reduced (Shafigh et al., 2012a). Under all curing conditions, the compressive strength of palm shell concrete increases with age, but it is still lower than that of ordinary concrete. In general, the compressive strength of palm shell concrete is 49–55% lower than that of ordinary concrete (
The porous structure of palm shell provides palm shell concrete good thermal insulation properties (Shafigh et al., 2012a). Under heat treatment, the surface quality of palm shell concrete can be changed, and the expansion and contraction of the material can be reduced, thereby improving the dimensional stability and bio-resistance, permeability of palm shell concrete, and reducing the equilibrium moisture content (Yew et al., 2014). With the increase of heat treatment temperature and heat treatment time, the workability of palm shell concrete could also been improved (Yew et al., 2014).
Rubber Seed Shell
Malaysian annual production of rubber seed is projected to be 1.2 million metric tons there by indicating that freely availability of this material can be used in concrete industry. Since rubber seed shell (see Figure 7) is lighter, Muthusamy et al. (2014) studied the possibility of using rubber seed shells as an alternative material as coarse aggregates in concrete. As the number of rubber seed shells increases, the performance of concrete gradually decreases. Besides the low density of the concrete, this performance degradation is also related to the inability of the cement slurry to cover the aggregate uniformly. About 10% of the rubber seed shells are suitable as coarse aggregates for concrete preparation. In addition,
Aquaculture Waste
This chapter reviews the application of aquaculture waste in concrete. Generally speaking, most kinds of aquaculture waste are shells which refer to the similar utilization ways in construction materials. A comparative study was carried out on the utilization of oysters, periwinkle, mussels and scallops as cement substitutes. It is found that all grated shells contained 96–97% CaCO3 (
FIGURE 12

Substitution and mixing amount of aquaculture waste in concrete in other literatures.
TABLE 6
| Aquaculture waste | Concrete mechanical properties | References | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compressive strength | Flexural strength | Elastic modulus | Shrinkage strain | ||
| Oyster shell | No obvious effect in the early stage; long-term effect | — | Obvious impact | Increase in content; increase shrinkage Strain | Yang et al. (2005), Yang et al. (2010), |
| Periwinkle shell | Decreased | Decreased | — | — | |
| Mussel shell | Increase | Increase | — | — | |
| Scallop shell | Decreased | ||||
Influence of aquaculture waste on the mechanical properties of concrete.
TABLE 7
| Aquaculture waste | Concrete durability | References | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freeze-thaw resistance | Water permeability | Carbonization | Chemical attack | ||
| Oyster shell | Some improvement | Some improvement | No obvious effect | No obvious effect | Yang et al. (2010), |
| Periwinkle shell | — | — | — | Obvious impact (Ash) | Umoh and Olusola (1979) |
| Scallop shell | No obvious effect | — | — | — | Wang et al. (2020) |
The influence of aquaculture waste on the durability of concrete.
TABLE 8
| Waste products | Usage | Effect of usage of waste materials in concrete | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oyster shell | Cement | Setting time increased | |
| Compressive strength reduced | |||
| Drying shrinkage reduced | |||
| Thermal conductivity reduced | |||
| Sand | Similar compressive strength using small particle size OS | Yoon et al. (2004) | |
| Compressive strength decreased using large particle size OS | |||
| Workability reduced | Yang et al. (2005) | ||
| No effect on setting time | |||
| Early strength increased | |||
| 28 days tensile strength decreased | |||
| 28 days MOE decreased | |||
| No effect on 28 days compressive strength | Yang et al. (2010) | ||
| 28 days MOE decreased | |||
| Drying shrinkage increased | |||
| Freeze-thaw resistance improved | |||
| No effect on carbonation | |||
| No effect on chemical resistance | |||
| Water permeability resistance improved | |||
| Workability reduced | |||
| Compressive strength increased at 5% replacement level | |||
| strength reduced at higher replacement level | |||
| Shrinkage increased | |||
| Sulfate resistance reduced | |||
| No effect on drying shrinkage | |||
| Compressive strength decreased | |||
| Tensile strength decreased | |||
| Coarse aggregate | Workability reduced | ||
| Drying shrinkage increased | |||
| Compressive strength decreased | |||
| Tensile strength decreased | |||
| Periwinkle shell | Cement | Compressive strength decreased | Umoh and Olusola (1979) |
| Improved resistance towards magnesium sulfate attack | |||
| Coarse aggregate | Workability reduced | ||
| Compressive strength decreased | |||
| Flexural strength decreased | |||
| Density decreased | |||
| Workability reduced | |||
| Compressive strength decreased | |||
| Density decreased | |||
| Mussel shell | Cement | Setting time increased | |
| Compressive strength reduced | |||
| Drying shrinkage reduced | |||
| Thermal conductivity reduced | |||
| Sand | Compressive strength increased | ||
| Scallop shell | Coarse aggregate | Increased the porosity of concrete | |
| Facilitate fluid and chloride ion migration | |||
| Good frost resistance | Wang et al. (2020) |
Usage of aquaculture waste in concrete.
Oyster Shell
Oysters are the world’s largest cultured shellfish and one of the important marine biological resources available to humans. Globally, the waste oyster shell could amount to about 200,000 ton per year. Oyster shells (see Figure 12) contain more than 90% CaCO3, which is a precious resource.
Oyster shells can be used as coarse aggregates in concrete. The high replacement of oyster shells in concrete may have a negative impact on the long-term strength and elastic modulus of concrete (Yang et al., 2010;
The surface of oyster shell sand is relatively irregular, which means that particle friction is prone to affect the fluidity of cementitious mortar and reduce the working performance of cementitious mortar during the mixing process (Wang et al., 2013). When the content of oyster shell sand reached 20% replacement ratio of natural sand in cementitious mortar, the compressive strength of cementitious mortar does not decrease significantly (
The fineness of oyster shells is normally higher than that of other shells. Compared with ordinary mortar, mixing Portland cement with ground oyster shell reduces the shrinkage rate of the mortar. Specifically, the shrinkage rate of mortar mixed with ground oyster shell is higher than that of mortar mixed with ground periwinkle shell (
Periwinkle Shell
Periwinkle shells are rich in calcium and easily combined with cement products (
The strength of periwinkle shells concrete depends on the performance and replacement rate of periwinkle shell (
Periwinkle shells could be calcined to produce periwinkle shell ash. Umoh (Umoh and Olusola, 1979) replaced 0–40% of the cement volume with periwinkle shell ash. Sulfate concentration, periwinkle shell ash content and exposure time all affect the compressive strength of concrete. The effect of MgSO4 solution on ordinary concrete is more serious than the concrete mixed with periwinkle shell ash. In addition, it is expected that the strength loss of periwinkle shell ash concrete will be alleviated when the volcanic ash completely consumes harmful hydration products. When periwinkle shell ash content reaches 10%, the concrete shows the best mechanical and durability performance.
Mussel Shell
Mussels living on coastal rocks are bivalve mollusks with dark brown shells. Mussel shells are wedge-shaped, with a pointed front end and a broad and round back end. The mussels shell is generally 6–8 cm long. Judging from the chemical composition of mussel shells, it does not have the properties of volcanic ash, but it is very possible to extract limestone from mussel shells.
It is found that the powdered mussel shells contains 96% CaCO3 and a small amount of impurities indicating that the limestone obtained from mussel shells can be used as mortar aggregate. The abrasive particles of mussel shells are in the shape of slender needles, resulting in a network structure with small pores in the interior of the mussel mortar (see Figure 12). This property can improve the mechanical properties of concrete (
However, the flat and flaky shape of mussel shells will increase the water demand and decrease the slump value of concrete, and also affect the paste-aggregate bond.
Scallop Shell
Scallop shells are mostly in the shape of discs or fans. Soluble substances exuded from the crushed scallop shells, which affected the performance of the gelled slurry (
The chitin on the surface of scallop shell can form a compact structure, which protects the scallop shell and beneficial to its freeze-thaw resistance. At the end of the freeze-thaw cycle, the scallop shell concrete is almost intact and there is almost no damage to the inside of the scallop shell concrete (Wang et al., 2020). The freeze-thaw resistance of scallop shells provides basis for future development of building materials that can cope with low temperature conditions.
Conclusion
From the perspective of practical application, this paper comprehensively analyzes the development of agricultural waste and aquaculture waste in the field of construction materials in recent years, and summarizes the mature research findings through classification.
In summary, different agricultural wastes and aquaculture wastes are both currently showing great potential in the concrete field. From the point of view of utilization ways, it can be roughly divided into cement replacement, aggregate replacement and fiber reinforcement. The characteristics of these wastes can basically meet the requirements in terms of the substitution of different functional concrete components. From the perspective of profitability, agricultural and aquaculture waste can bring extremely low cost to the production of concrete. From the perspective of usability, most of the waste can improve the working performance, mechanical properties, and durability of concrete. However, the incorporation of the waste may also reduce certain properties of concrete (such as workability, strength and durability, etc., see Tables 2, 3, 5, 8). According to a large number of experiments, the mechanical and durability performance of the concrete with these wastes can be improved by controlling the amount of the waste. At the same time, the selection of waste materials also affects the performance of waste concrete. For example, waste materials from different regions and different maturity levels show very different properties. Different pre-treatment methods for waste materials will also cause corresponding deviations in test results. Therefore, selecting appropriate test materials and adopting appropriate pre-treatment methods will help improve the mechanical properties and durability of waste concrete.
Agricultural waste and aquaculture waste have great value in the development of environment-friendly concrete. Making full use of these waste resources can not only reduce the environmental pressure caused by waste accumulation and incineration, but also prevent natural resource depletion and shortages caused by excessively quarrying and mining aggregate, as well as the ecological environment pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions. In the future, more and more wastes will be reused in the field of building materials, which will be a bright prospect for sustainable development.
Statements
Author contributions
Resources, WW; writing—original draft preparation, WYW; writing—review and editing, SG; supervision, GC; project administration, JY; investigation, YL All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by Youth Fund of Rocket Force University of Engineering (No. 2019QNJJ005); Back Analysis and Research of Surrounding Rock and Supporting Structure Parameters (No. 4166215); National Innovation Training Program for College Students (s202012715006); Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities (21JP138).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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Summary
Keywords
agricultural waste, aquaculture waste, concrete, cement, performance
Citation
Wang W, Wei W, Gao S, Chen G, Yuan J and Li Y (2021) Agricultural and Aquaculture Wastes as Concrete Components: A Review. Front. Mater. 8:762568. doi: 10.3389/fmats.2021.762568
Received
22 August 2021
Accepted
11 October 2021
Published
11 November 2021
Volume
8 - 2021
Edited by
Kequan Yu, Tongji University, China
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© 2021 Wang, Wei, Gao, Chen, Yuan and Li.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Shan Gao, gaoshan@hit.edu.cn
This article was submitted to Structural Materials, a section of the journal Frontiers in Materials
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