Perpustakaan Digital ITB

We depend on cattle for our food and clothes, which in 2022 census had 19,203,045 accounted in Indonesia. This raises a new problem that is cattle manure. Another problem we face is the need for construction material. Clay brick is the most common construction material for small residential houses, but this brick is not environmentally friendly based on the raw material sourcing and on the production method. Thus, based on several anecdotes and research reports, an alternative raw material for clay bricks using cattle manure that maintains the mechanical properties but more environmentally friendly is proposed. In this research, cow manure was hydrothermally treated to extract the nutrient in liquid form and to improve the fiber characteristics of manure to be then mixed with clay and molded into clay bricks. After the bricks were fired using electric furnace, they were then inspected and tested to understand the quality of the bricks and the effects of hydrothermal process and brickmaking process parameters on the final products. The solid manure products of hydrothermal were also tested to determine the characteristics and the effects of hydrothermal process to fiber. The result found in this research was that by hydrothermally processing cow manure in the range of 100-140 ?, the fiber swelled up, agglomerated, and had less ash content than raw manure. By mixing the manure and clay with ratio of 750 gr clay to 500 gr manure to 360 ml water, it was found that as the hydrothermal temperature rises, so does the compression strength and water absorption of the bricks, and the density lowers. This research also solidified the findings of several studies about the positive impact of manure addition to earthen material. Furthermore, it was found that manure addition to clay improved the compression strength based on the type of clay material. The best performing brick composition is fiber treated at 140 ? mixed with commercial grade clay from Majalengka, yielding 1.92 MPa compression strength, 29.57% water absorptivity, and 1.37 g/cm3 density bricks. The characteristics are not up to SNI-15-2094-1991 standard.