PERFORMANCE OF AGRICUTURAL WASTE AND OTHER BACKFILL MATERIALS FOR REDUCTION OF EARTH RESISTANCE

B. S. Dahiru1, W. F. Wan Ahmad1, J. Jasni1, and W. M. N. Wan Daud2 1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Faculty of Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor, Malaysia.

2. Department of Crop Science Faculty of Agriculture Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

Many earthing techniques have been employed to achieve low resistance earthing but somehow it is difficult due to the variation of soil characteristics from one point to the other. The use of industrial and agricultural wastes as backfill materials for reducing earth resistance has received recognition recently where in this study, agricultural waste such as palm kernel fibre, kenaf fibre, paddy dust and clay based materials such as bentonite and Sungai Besar Marine Clay were used as backfill material filled in five holes with 0.13m diameter and 1.5m deep. Five copper electrodes of 0.013m diameter and 1.5m long were driven at the centre of each hole allowing 0.1m above grade for clamping of earth resistance measuring instrument. Another earthing installation was made by driving a copper electrode directly into the soil to serve as reference installation. Earthing installations were separated at 3m intervals to avoid overlapping of sphere of influence from adjacent installations. Plastic earth chambers were placed on each earthing installation to serve as inspection boxes. Earth resistance measurement was conducted on daily basis for one year using an Earth Tester. Results indicated that after one year of installation, the earth resistances have averagely reduced by 53.85%, 41.56%, 33.54%, 20.14% and 15.2%, respectively for bentonite, palm kernel fibre, Sungai Besar Marine Clay, kenaf fibre and paddy dust when compared to the reference earthing installation.

1.0 INTRODUCTION Earthing has been defined as the provision of a permanent and continuous conductive path to the earth that has sufficient capacity to carry any fault current liable to be imposed upon it, has sufficient low impedance to limit the voltage rise above ground potential, and that facilitates the operation of protective devices in the circuit [1]. Meliopoulous [2] stated that, a structure is called earthed if it is electrically connected to an earthembedded metallic structure, where the earth embedded structure is called the earthing system and provide a conducting path of electricity to earth. The main purpose of earthing is to maintain a reliable operation of power system and to provide protection to personnel, equipment and the system itself during both normal and fault conditions. Furthermore, earthing system will provide a safe path for the dissipation of fault currents, lightning strikes, static discharges, electromagnetic interference (EMI) signals to the earth without disturbing anything in the middle [3]. Earthing is also required to provide signal reference in telecommunication and data facilities. The Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard 142, recommended soil treatment as a measure to improve earthing resistance in high resistivity soils [4]. The British Standard, BS7430 on the other hand recommends replacement of high resistivity soil with low resistivity soil or other material to improve earthing resistance in high resistivity soils [5]. The use of industrial, agricultural or biological wastes as backfill materials for reduction of earth resistance has been severally reported in published literature. Agricultural and industrial waste products have recently gained recognition in many economic and technological applications ranging from biofuel to composites. Initially, these products posed substantive environmental and ecological problems in terms of disposal. However, recent advances in technology has led to what is called conversion of liability into asset by utilizing the by products for useful purposes [6]. In this study, agricultural by products such as palm kernel fibre (PKF), kenaf fibre, and paddy dust in addition to bentonite and Sungai Besar Marine Clay (SBMC) were used as backfill materials for reduction of earth resistance of earthing systems.

Palm oil milling is a major industry in Malaysia which produces palm oil and numerous by products such as palm kernel cake (PKC), palm oil sludge (POS), and PKF [7]. PKF is used in one of the earthing installations presented in this work. PKF is composed of 65% cellulose and 19% lignin which make it a good sorbent material like other fibres [8]. Paddy dust (rice husk) is also an agricultural by product of the rice milling factory which is also one of the major agricultural industries in Malaysia. It constitutes about 20% of the weight of rice, 50% cellulose, 2530% lignin and 1520% of silica producing 200kg of husk for every 1000kg of paddy milled [9]. Kenaf plant (Hibiscus Cannabinus linn) is a hot season annual fibre crop which has been used for a long time to produce twine, rope and sackcloth. Nowadays, there are several new applications of kenaf fibre including paper products, building materials and absorbents [10]. All the three agricultural waste products are fibrous in nature and are abundantly available in Malaysia, and very cheap. Bentonite which is claimed to be the best agent for reducing earth resistance [11] is commercially available and affordable, while SBMC is a clay type material obtained from Sungai Besar, Selangor, Malaysia. It is composed of 2-8% sand, 46-60% silt and 33-52% clay, with chemical properties such as, pH of 7.2-7.5, organic matter content of 5-14%, carbonate 9-13%, CEC 25-75 meq/100g, and mineralogy class of Lillite-Montmorillite [12].

2. BACKFILL MATERIALS

Application of backfill materials for reduction of earth resistance is based on earth electrode enhancement or electrode encasement as referred to in [14-15, 18-19]. Increasing the diameter of a driven earth electrode reduces the earth resistance by a small fraction only. It was reported in [13] that increasing the diameter of an earth electrode from 12.5mm to 25mm has increased the weight of the electrode by 400%, increased its cost by 400%, but reduced the earth resistance by 9.5% only. Hence, the idea of using backfill materials in contact with the earth electrode is indirectly increasing the diameter of the electrode with a cheaper alternative. It is desirable that backfill materials should have low resistivity value, if possible lower than the soil at the installation site.

Several works on electrode enhancement using both industrial and agricultural wastes as backfill materials have been reported in literature. Gomes et al. [14] reported the use of metal oxide powder, a waste product of steel industry, granite powder and cast iron powder as backfill materials around a galvanized iron (GI) electrode. While Chen et al. [15] conducted a study to determine the optimum quantity of earth resistance reduction agent using granulated blast furnace slag as backfill material in a pit of 0.13m diameter by 0.9m deep. The use of conductive cement as backfill material was also reported in [16] as an arrangement having dual advantage of maintaining the earth electrode moist and also preventing the electrode from being corroded. The earth resistance was reported to have reduced by 50-90% when compared to the reference electrode. Furthermore, the earth electrode resistance could be reduced by replacing the soil in the critical resistance area with a soil of lower resistivity as reported in [13]. The use of biological wastes, such as mixture of cow waste and sand, chicken waste, saw dust, ashes and garden soil as backfill materials was reported in [17]. The resistivities of the waste materials were measured and results indicated that ashes had the lowest resistivity, followed by chicken waste and cow waste. Kumarasinghe [18] reported that earth resistance of a lightning protection system could be reduced by using bentonite and agricultural waste materials such as coconut coir peat and rice paddy dust as backfill materials. It was also reported in [19] that palm kernel oil cake (PKOC) could be used as backfill material to reduce earth resistance.

3. MATERIALS AND METHOD

A resistivity box of 0.1m3 dimension was constructed using Perspex glass with stainless steel plates attached to the opposite faces of the box to serve as parallel plate terminals as shown in Figure 1. The capacitance of the box was measured and found to be 1.0832 pF/m using LCR meter as illustrated in Figure 2. Each backfill material was alternately placed in the box and compacted, and then the resistance is measured using the LCR meter where the typical arrangement is as shown in Figure 3. The dry resistivity of each material was determined using equation (1) where is the resistivity in -m, R is the 5

measured resistance in Ohms, A is the area of the stainless steel plates in metres square, and L is the distance between the plates in metres, and the results are listed in Table 1, while the resistivity of bentonite at 300% water content was reported as 2-5-m in [20]. Subsequently, an experiment consisting of six earthing installations was set up at the Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Five holes with 0.13m diameter and 1.5m deep were drilled and each hole was filled with a different kind of backfill material and compacted. Five copper electrodes of 0.013m diameter and 1.5m long were then driven at the centre of the holes to a depth of 1.4m allowing 0.1m above grade for clamping of earth resistance measuring instrument. The sixth earthing installation was made by driving another copper electrode directly into the soil to a depth of 1.4m to serve as the reference installation. All earthing installations were separated 3m apart from adjacent installations to prevent overlapping of sphere of influence. Plastic earth chambers were placed on all earthing installations to serve as inspection boxes and also to fulfill the requirement of Malaysian Standard. An Earth Tester was used to measure the earth resistance daily based on 3-point fall of potential method and the performance of earthing installations is evaluated on monthly basis in comparison with the reference installation using equation (2) where Rreduc denotes the reduction in resistance, Rref denotes the resistance measured at the reference installation, and Renhanc is the resistance of earthing installations with enhancement materials.

RA L
Rreduc. Rref . Renhanc. Rref 100%

(1) (2)

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 lists the measured resistance and calculated resistivity of the backfill materials used in this study. Results indicate that SBMC recorded the lowest resistivity value possibly owing to its smaller grain size when compared to the other backfill materials, i.e. 1.952k-m. The calculated resistivity values for Kenaf fibre, PKF and paddy dust are 2.881k-m, 5.330k-m and 6.054k-m, respectively. The high resistivity values

obtained from the agricultural wastes may possibly be due their fibrous texture which may contain air pores and also due to difficulty of being compacted. Figures 8 to 19 demonstrate the measured earth resistances for all six earth installations for a period of one year where the performance is presented on monthly basis. Figure 8 illustrates the graph of measured earth resistances for the first month after installation where results indicate that the resistances for all earthing installations were initially high and unstable but gradually reduced after about three weeks. Typical resistance readings were within the range of 20 to 30 for bentonite, SBMC and PKF installations, while the resistances for kenaf fibre, paddy dust and reference installations range from 40 to 55. The measured earth resistances for the second month are shown in Figure 9 where it is observed that the resistance readings for bentonite, SBMC and PKF installations were still within the range of 20 to 30 but yet not stable. Similarly, the resistances for kenaf fibre, paddy dust installations remained within 40 to 55 range although not stable. Note that the resistance of the reference installations was above 60 and recorded the highest value. Figure 10 demonstrates the measured earth resistances for the 3rd month where r the resistances are generally low and stable with bentonite, SBMC and PKF installations measured about 25, paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations recorded resistances of about 35. However, resistances measured for reference installations are in the range of 40-50. The graph of measured earth resistance during the fourth month is as shown in Figure 11 where resistance values are stable and previous values were maintained. During the fifth month, it is observed from Figure 12 that resistances have slightly increased where resistances measured for paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations were almost above 44 and 40, respectively. Similarly, the resistances for PKF and SBMC installations were measured as 26 and 30, respectively. Note that measured resistances for bentonite installation were nearly stable at about 20. Figure 13 shows the performance of earthing installations after six months. It is observed that the resistances on all installations have slightly decreased where the resistance on the reference installation was seen to vary and in the range of 40 and 50, while paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations recorded resistances less than 40. In the same vein, the resistances for

PKF and SBMC installations were about 25 while bentonite installation indicated a stable resistance of about 20. During the seventh month, the earth resistances of all earthing installations were nearly maintained at their previous values but there were evidences of instability as illustrated in Figure 14. The performance of earthing installations after 8 months is as shown in Figure 15. It is observed that the resistances began to increase on day 221 and continued steadily up to day 240 where the paddy dust installation indicated a resistance value higher than the reference installation. Resistance readings for reference and kenaf fibre installations were above 60, while SBMC recorded a resistance of nearly 40. Measured resistances for PKF and bentonite installations are 38 and 29, respectively . Figure 16 illustrates the measured earth resistances for the 9th months. It is observed from the graph that paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations recorded resistance values well above the reference installation suggesting a poor performance from the two backfill materials. Typical resistance values for paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations were 130 and 102, respectively. The average resistance readings obtained on other installations are 65, 60, 57 for reference, PKF and SBMC installations, respectively. Note that bentonite installation measured averagely 30 during the same period. The increase of earth resistance for all earthing installations may be related to a prolonged period of drought which prevailed during the eighth and ninth months lasting for about three consecutive weeks. Also, the results for the eighth and ninth months further indicate the influence of moisture content on earth resistance. Although paddy dust and kenaf fibre have moisture retaining characteristics, prolonged period of drought still had some impact on their performance as backfill materials. Another possibility for the poor performance of the two backfill materials after the seventh month may be due to biodegradation of the materials which may create voids at the contact surface between the earth electrode and the backfill material. This suggests that paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations may require replenishment or maintenance after the fifth months to maintain good performance. Figure 17 shows the measured earth resistances after 10 months. It is observed that the resistances on all earthing installations are high but have slightly decreased from their previous values. Paddy dust installation recorded the highest resistance with 118 8

followed by kenaf fibre and reference installations with 82 each. SBMC, PKF and bentonite recorded resistances of 67, 59 and 39, respectively during the 10th month of observation. The performance of the earthing installations after 11 months is illustrated in Figure 18. It is observed that the resistances for all installations have decreased drastically with the reference installation measuring averagely 50. Paddy dust, SBMC and kenaf fibre installations recorded an average of 40 measured resistances. PKF installation recorded an average of 32 and bentonite installation recorded an average of 24 during the 11th month of earth resistance measurements. Performance of the earthing installations after one year is as illustrated in Figure 19 where it indicates that on average, the resistance values of the previous month for most installations were maintained but not stable due to sharp variations caused by degradation of the backfill materials resulting in formation of voids at the contact surface between the earth electrode and the backfill materials, and also may possibly be due to alternation between dry and wet soil conditions. The summary of measured earth resistance readings for a period of one year is listed in Table 2. It indicates that the final earth resistances achieved by installations with backfill materials were 38.10, 48.50 and 60 for PKF, kenaf fibre and paddy dust earthing systems, respectively. Similarly, 25.40 and 48.20 was obtained from bentonite and SBMC installations. The results indicated that the earthing resistance measured on SBMC installation is higher than its initial value on day 0. This may possibly be due to settlement of the SBMC in the hole which may create voids thereby leaving the earth electrode bare. The percentage reduction of earth resistance for backfilled earthing installations compared to the reference installation for a period of one year is presented in Table 3. Results in the first row indicate the percentage difference of earth resistance between the reference installation and other installations on day 0. The numbers 1 to 12 in column 1 represents 12 months and while 365 days completes the duration to one year. It is observed that PKF installation recorded an average of more than 40% reduction of earth resistance for a period of 10 months but decreased to barely more than 30% thereafter. This possibly suggests that the backfill material has undergone biodegradation and requires maintenance. Another possible cause of poor performance of backfill materials

after long periods of installation is the formation of voids at the contact surface between the earth electrode and the backfill materials. The results also reveal that the kenaf fibre installation recorded averagely about 30% reduction of earth resistance in the first five months after which its performance declined. For instance, during the seventh month, the earth resistance of the kenaf fibre installation was 0.39% more than the reference installation. This clearly suggests that in order to maintain good performance, kenaf fibre installation should be maintained after five months. Considering paddy dust installation, it is observed that the performance is generally not consistent but a reduction of slightly above 30% was achieved in the first five months. However, the performance declined to less than 20% during the sixth month. Specifically during the eighth month, paddy dust installation recorded a resistance of 16.27% above the reference installation. Similarly, after the 12th month i.e. on day 365, the resistance measured on paddy dust installation was 2.92% above the reference installation. This also suggests that it needs maintenance after five months to ensure good performance. Bentonite installation recorded the highest percentage reduction of earth resistance, and was also consistent where over 50% reduction was maintained throughout the year. SBMC installation also performed fairly well for a period of seven months recording a reduction of resistance of nearly 50% after which the performance declined to barely 20%. This also suggests that the installation would require maintenance after seven months to ensure good performance.

5.0 CONCLUSION The performance of agricultural waste and clay based materials for reduction of earth resistance was investigated using six earthing installations, 5 backfilled and 1 reference. The study revealed that after 365 days, PKF, kenaf fibre, paddy dust, bentonite and SBMC earthing installations recorded resistances of 38, 48, 60, 25.40, and 48.20, which are reduced by 41.56%, 20.14%, 15.2%, 53.85%, and 33.54%, respectively when compared to the reference installation starting from day 0. It is concluded from the results that bentonite installation is the best performed earthing 10

installation followed by PKF and SBMC installations. Paddy dust installation is the least performed earthing installation. Therefore, bentonite, PKF and SBMC are considered suitable backfill materials for reduction of earth resistance. The use of backfill materials for reduction of earth resistance is cost effective as the backfill materials are cheap and available. Also, they are environmentally friendly, although they may require maintenance after certain periods of time to replenish the materials to ensure good performance. Bentonite installation may require maintenance after one year, whereas SBMC, paddy dust and kenaf fibre installations would need to be maintained after 7 and 5 months, respectively.

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of resistivity box [21].

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Resistivity box

LCR meter

Figure 2 Measurement of capacitance of the resistivity box

Paddy dust

Figure 3 Typical measurement of resistance of the backfill materials used

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Figure 4 Layout for installation of earthing system

Hole drilling machine Flushing pump

Figure 5 Typical hole drilling process

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Figure 6 A typical 0.13m diameter and 1.5m deep hole

Earth electrode

Figure 7 Typical completed earthing installation

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Figure 8 Graph of measured earth resistance after one month

Figure 9 Graph of measured earth resistance after 2 months

Figure 10 Graph of measured earth resistance after 3 months

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Figure 11 Graph of measured earth resistance after 4 months

Figure 12 Graph of measured earth resistance after 5 months

Figure 13 Graph of measured earth resistance after 6 months

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Figure 14 Graph of measured earth resistance after 7 months

Figure 15 Graph of measured earth resistance after 8 months .

Figure 16 Graph of measured earth resistance after 9 months 17

Figure 17 Graph of measured earth resistance after 10 months

Figure 18 Graph of measured earth resistance after 11 months

Figure 19 Graph of measured earth resistance after one year 18

Table 1 CALCULATED RESISTIVITY VALUES FOR VARIOUS BACKFILL MATERIALS Backfill material PKF Kenaf fibre Paddy dust SBMC Measured resistance (k) 53.295 28.810 60.541 19.952 Calculated resistivity values (k-m) 5.330 2.881 6.054 1.995

Table 2 SUMMARY OF MEASURED EARTH RESISTANCE READINGS AFTER ONE YEAR Backfill material PKF Kenaf fibre Paddy dust Bentonite SBMC Resistance on Day 0 () 56.00 72.60 65.40 49.20 33.70 Resistance after one year () 38.10 48.50 60.00 25.40 48.20

Table 3 PERCENTAGE REDUCTION OF EARTH RESISTANCE FOR NEM COMPARED TO REFERENCE INSTALLATION Months PKF Kenaf fibre Paddy dust (%) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 365 days 12.91 44.42 49.77 50.44 50.84 53.32 44.30 45.66 42.18 44.78 44.88 34.37 29.43 34.65 12.91 10.96 28.01 29.30 30.46 32.78 22.81 0.39 1.58 21.89 34.33 22.30 17.36 16.81 1.71 15.12 37.50 31.50 28.15 30.91 18.82 1.54 16.27 3.00 10.08 7.86 3.40 2.92 23.48 52.93 54.63 56.39 58.40 57.47 55.70 57.23 54.66 54.36 57.80 57.22 57.17 56.43 47.59 47.26 53.47 49.78 49.58 44.61 39.16 40.46 25.91 19.94 21.89 19.93 22.64 17.32 Bentonite SBMC

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