Inventors Produce Cement From Sugar Wastes

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Two young men from the Philippines, Bonas Laureto and Deorex David Navaja, both living near a sugar factory, found a way to make commercial – grade cement out of solid wastes from sugarcane.

Sugarcane filter cake and bagasse ( crushed sugarcane ) ash, two major solid wastes by products produced by sugar factories are harmful waste products which most sugar producing communities around the country have learned to live with. Pressed filter cakes are foul – smelling while bagasse ashes which can remain suspended in the air, contains high amounts of silica, which when inhaled can cause silicosis of the lungs. The two Filipino inventors discovered that these wastes contain components needed for the manufacture of cement – like material.

The two inventors tested three methods of cement manufacture and made different types of cement blocks. The result was a cement with an acceptable level of stability. Accoording to the two, their discovery is less expensive to manufacture and can help both reduce waste and save a natural resources.

” We designed a method of purifying these wastes to achieve maximum percentage composition of the desired chemicals. Then, these chemicals are proportioned to specific amounts that, when allowed chemically to react, forms cement compounds,” Laureto explained to reporters. Laureto also added that these compounds are further exposed to a specific time sequence to allow chemical reaction to take place, thus forming cement compounds with approximately the same percentage composition to that of its commercially produced counterparts.