Effect of Quartz Replacement with Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) for Triaxial Porcelain Composition of 50%: 40%: 10%

Palm oil fuel ash (POFA) is a waste material disposed by the palm oil industries after palm oil shell, kernel and fiber are burnt in the industries for the process of electricity generation. Triaxial porcelain (50% clay, 40% feldspar and quartz 10%) was adopted for this research. Quartz was progressively replaced with POFA at 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% respectively. The samples were dry pressed and 91 MPa was used as a mould pressure with different sintering temperatures of 100 degrees C, 1150 degrees C and 1200 degrees C respectively. The result shows that, samples containing POFA yield higher mass loss and volume shrinkage at all the sintering temperature range. Meanwhile, lower densities were reported when quartz is replaced with POFA at 100% for the entire temperature range. The maximum compressive strength (125.42 MPA) was obtained at sintering temperature of 1100 degrees C for 100% replacement of quartz with POFA. XRD studies revealed higher mullitization in the samples containing palm oil fuel ash.