Conventional building materials are widely used in a developing country like Malaysia. This type of material is costly. Oil palm shell (OPS) is a type of farming solid waste in the tropical region. This paper aims to investigate strength characteristics and cost analysis of concrete produced using the gradation of OPS 0–50% on conventional coarse aggregate with the mix proportions 1？:？1.65？:？2.45, 1？:？2.5？:？3.3, and 1？:？3.3？:？4.2 by the weight of ordinary Portland cement, river sand, crushed stone, and OPS as a substitution for coarse aggregate. The corresponding w/c ratios were used: 0.45, 0.6, and 0.75, respectively, for the defined mix proportions. Test results indicate that compressive strength of concrete decreased as the percentage of the OPS increased in each mix ratio. Other properties of OPS concrete, namely, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, splitting tensile strength, and density, were also determined and compared to the corresponding properties of conventional concrete. Economic analysis also indicates possible cost reduction of up to 15% due to the use of OPS as coarse aggregate. Finally, it is concluded that the use of OPS has great potential in the production of structural lightweight concrete. 1. Introduction Malaysia is well known as one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of palm oil. Palm kernel shells are a product of oil palm tree which are available in Malaysia in large quantity. Presently, 4.49 million hectares of land in Malaysia is under oil palm cultivation, producing over 17.73 million tonnes of palm oil and 2.13 tonnes of palm kernel oil annually, accounting for the biggest share of the global export market to date and yielding nearly about 18.9 tonnes/hectare of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) [1]. In the process of manufacturing oil palm, solid residues and liquid wastes are generated in the oil palm industry. These include empty fruit bunch (EFB), OPS, pericarp, and palm oil mill effluent (POME). Palm oil mills have different processing capacities of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) ranging from 20 to 90 tonnes per hour [2]. In Malaysia, there is an annual production of over 4 million tonnes of oil palm shell solid wastes [3, 4]. OPS are not commonly used in the construction industry but are often damped as agricultural wastes [5]. However, with the quest for affordable housing system for both the rural and urban populations of Malaysia and other developing countries, various proposals focusing on cutting down conventional building material costs have been considered. In countries where abundant agricultural
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