Effective utilization of sugar industry waste in Indian construction sector: A geospatial approach

Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), a by-product from sugar industry, has been evidently reported as a potential alternative cementitious material that can partially replace cement. In spite of its high valorization potential in cement production, the large quantity of bagasse ash generated from Indian sugar plants (44,220 tonnes/day) is entirely unutilized and disposed as waste. Lack of comprehensive SCBA availability and accessibility studies are the major deterrents for the effective utilization of SCBA in industrial scale applications. This study investigated the availability of bagasse ash, fly ash, and slag in India, and their accessibility to existing cement plants. A comparative network analysis using ArcGIS was adopted, to assess the benefits of using bagasse ash in cement plants. Bagasse ash was found to be a potentially viable supplementary cementitious material in three out of the five major sugar-producing states of India. It is shown that switching over to bagasse ash results in significant reduction of carbon emissions associated with logistics (5.41 million tonnes/year). Strategic locations for new cement plants were identified based on availability of bagasse ash, using location-allocation analysis. A practical framework has also been presented for the effective utilization and recycling of sugar industry wastes in the construction sector.