Promoting sustainable cleaner production paradigms in palm oil fuel ash as an eco-friendly cementitious material: A critical analysis

Abstract Long term goals need to be set to promote the country's circular economy (CE) as well as the cleaner environment by recycling waste materials into useful products. In pursuit of controlling environmental threats of carbon-based industrial wastes, different preprocessing techniques for their conversion into other value-added materials are being put in use. This review targets the purposeful utilization of massive amount of palm oil fuel ash (POFA), generated as a waste from power plants of palm oil processing mills in the major palm oil-producing countries. Currently, unrestrained disposal of POFA captures not only precious land but also creates environmental threats and health-related issues. Present work is an attempt to establish a sustainable cleaner production (SCP) system instead of unmanaged POFA disposal. Major palm oil producer countries should address the emerging issues of POFA related unsafe environment, energy consumption and landfill spaces by adopting reuse, reduce and recycle principles. Technically, this review also focuses on the use of POFA as a promising cementitious material in concrete production. It also maps the importance of POFA in concrete production as a cement replacement by presenting various state-of-the-art chemical reactions, mode of action of POFA for its pozzolanic reactivity in cement compositions and associated technical, environmental, and economic benefits. This will provide an alternative option and a sustainable solution for the global construction industry. It is conclusively evident from an extensive literature survey of 463 published results from last 26 years that POFA can be effectively used in concrete production to replace cement without compromising on its strength, performance, and durability. Based on the till that research work on POFA applications in the cement industry and other multiple areas, a circular economic model has been presented to support the concept of zero waste and SCP. It will stimulate the technical persons and decision-makers to make policies and strategies that can spotlight the effective use of POFA in multiple applications, primarily focusing on concrete production not only for curtailing the land and water pollution but also acquiring economic benefits.