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CHAPTER 7

COST ANALYSIS

7.1 GENERAL

The basic purpose of any research is to obtain environmental

friendly product or new material. At the same time, cost of the product should
be borne in mind so that mass production should not be hindered. Unless the
new material is cost effective, it will not reach the common man. Geopolymer
concrete as a whole is versatile and cost effective. Mass production of
Geopolymer elements at factories will be not only cheap but also will speed
up the construction. This chapter aims at studying the cost of production of
one cubic metre of Geopolymer concrete based on the market rates of various
ingredients and compared with the cost of production of one cubic metre of
ordinary Portland cement concrete.

7.2 COST OF MATERIALS

The cost of all materials obtained from local suppliers and used in
this research is shown in Table 7.1. Sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide
were obtained from M/S Thirumalai Traders, Venkalakadai Street, Madurai
625 001. Hyperplasticiser under trade name GLENIUM B233 was purchased
directly from BASF India, Chennai while superplasticiser under trade name
Conplast 320 was purchased directly from ROFF chemicals private limited,
Chennai.
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Table 7.1 Cost of materials

Sl. Rate
Material Unit
No in Rs.
1. Fly ash 300 MT
2. Fine aggregate 800 MT
3. Coarse aggregate 650 MT
4. Cement 300 50 kg
5. Sodium silicate in liquid form 8 kg
6. Sodium hydroxide in flake form 25 kg
7. Lignosulphonated
100 kg
Superplasticiser based
Carboxylic based 200 kg

7.3 COST ANALYSIS OF OPC CONCRETE

The cost of OPC concrete for one cubic metre is analysed based on the
quantity of materials required and is tabulated in Table 7.2.

Table 7.2 Cost of production of OPC concrete

M 30 Grade M 50 Grade
Sl. Rate
Material Unit Quantity Amount Quantity Amount
No in Rs.
in kg in Rs. in kg in Rs.
1. Cement 300 50 kg 350 2100 450 2700
2. Fine aggregate 800 MT 642 514 425 340
3. Coarse aggregate 650 MT 1270 826 1381 898
4. Super Lignosulphonated
100 kg 7.5 750 - -
plasticiser based
Polycarboxylic
200 kg - - 8 1600
based
TOTAL 4190 5538
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The cost of Geopolymer concrete for one cubic metre is analysed

based on the quantity of materials required and is tabulated in Table 7.3. It
may be noted that the cost of super plasticiser is not added in G30 and G50
concretes (Chindaprasirt et al 2007, Daniel Kong et al 2010) as it is not
suggested for improving workability and strength.

Table 7.3 Cost of production of Geopolymer concrete

M 30 Grade M 50 Grade
Sl.
Material Rate Unit Quantity Amount Quantity Amount
No
in kg in Rs. in kg in Rs.
1. Fly ash 300 MT 378 189 408 204
2. Fine aggregate 800 MT 554 443 647 518
3. Coarse aggregate 650 MT 1294 841 1201 781
4. Sodium silicate 8 kg 124 992 138 1104

5. Sodium hydroxide 25 kg 50 1250 63 1575

6. Cost of electric power consumed/m3 600 600
TOTAL 4315 4782

By comparing cost of production of one cubic metre of Geopolymer

concrete with that of OPC concrete, the savings in cost is as follows:

The extra cost in production of G30 over M30 Concrete = Rs.4315-4190

= Rs.125
= 2.9 %
The savings in cost of production of G50 over M50 Concrete = 5538 - 4782
= Rs.756
= 15.8 %
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7.4 CONCLUSION

Based on the workings, it may be concluded that the cost of

production of G30, normal strength concrete, is marginally (2.9 %) higher
than OPC M30 concrete whereas the saving in production of G50 over M50
concrete is 15.8 % (Anuradha et al 2012) which leads to manufacture high
strength prefabricated elements.