INVESTIGATION OF GEOPOLYMER DEGRADATION IN CONTROL RELEASE FERTILIZER (CRF) APPLICATION

• Main Author: ABDULLAH HALIM, NUR AMIRA
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9845/1/2012%20-%20Investigation%20of%20Geopolyer%20Degradation%20in%20Control%20Release%20Fertilizer%28CRF%29%20Application.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9845/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Geopolymer is one of the new control release fertilizer (CRF) that will have the potential to replace the current CRFs as it is eco-friendly and manufactured through sustainable production processes. Degradation ofthe geopolymer is being studies asthe geopolymer needs to be degraded in order to be use as urea coating material. Inefficient of conventional fertilizer that makes nutrient lost to the environment that will cause serious environmental problems as well as the polymer coating material that will leave undesired residue of synthetic polymer material that lead to the contamination of soil, lead to the research of developing a new control release fertilizer using geopolymer. With the improvement in the performance due to the controllable structure, lower manufacturing cost due to proprietary process and low cost raw materials, and superior eco-friendly characteristics, geopolymer-based CRFs seem to provide a novel fertilizer and associated manufacturing technology solution with improved performance. Geopolymer degradation study is important to see whether geopolymer can degrade or not and suitable to be used as urea coating material. The effect of pH towards geopolymer degradation also being studied to see what isthe effect ofchanging the pH towards the degradation of geopolymer. Amylase enzyme is used in this research to help the degradation of geopolymer. To study the geopolymer degradation, Fourier Transform Infared (FTIR) is used as FTIR can show provide info on analyte chemical structure like bonding and functional group. Analysis of the infrared spectra showed a slight decreased of certain specific peaks of geopolymer. This showed that geopolymer can degrade, but it takes time to fully degrade. Some modification for the amylase enzyme concentration and geopolymer can be made for a better result for geopolymer degradation.