A comparative study on sweet potato waste and cassava starch as alternative materials for unfired clay brick

Abstract

Due to the significant environmental damage caused by the construction, and manufacture of building materials worldwide, this study underlines the necessity to search for substitute materials that will have a minimal negative impact. This study gets motivations from the termite mound to make a material for building a naturally solidified mount structure. The cellulase enzyme, which converts beta-glucose or shorter polysaccharides and oligosaccharides from cellulose, and mucopolysaccharide-rich termite saliva, were the building blocks of the termite mound. It was discovered that these polysaccharides are source of the soil resilience and sticky characteristics. This research compares two different types of organic material that have the potential to mimic the properties of termite mounds. First, mixture is composed of clay soil and cassava starch when producing unfired clay bricks. The other type is composed of clay soil and sweet potato waste, which is used as a source of polysaccharides in hot paste at proportions of 0%, 1.5%, 3%, 4.5%, and 6%. The most effective binder among the two types is the 1.5% cassava starch which has a compressive strength of 5.06 MPa.