Influence of Modified Chemical Compositions on Palm Oil Fuel Ash to the Physico-Mechanical Properties of Porcelain

Palm oil fuel ash (POFA) is produced and disposed of by the palm oil industries as waste after burning palm fiber, husk, kernel, and shell as fuel to general electricity in-house. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of modified chemical compositions on POFA on the physico-mechanical properties of porcelain. POFA was washed with 1, 2, and 3 Molar of HCl acid and heat treated. The powder was partially replaced with quartz at 15 wt.% and mixed in a ball mill machine for 12 hours. Modified POFA (admixture of CaO, Al2O3, MgO, P2O5, SiO2, and Fe2O3) was added to the porcelain composition at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and 15 wt.% to measure its influence on physico-mechanical properties of porcelain. The mixture was homogeneously mixed and dry pressed into a pellet at mould pressure 91 MPa and sintered at 1150 °C for 2 hours soaking time. The result of this research shows that these chemical compounds influenced physico-mechanical properties of porcelain, the optimum bulk density, compressive strength, and Vickers micro hardness values were obtained by the addition of modified POFA (admixture of CaO, Al2O3, MgO, P2O5, SiO2, and Fe2O3).