Displaying items by tag: Ash

US: According to Charlotte Business Journal, Duke Energy has proposed excavating 12 more of its 36 coal ash ponds in North and South Carolina and burying the waste in a fully-lined landfills or structural fill projects.

To date, Duke has proposed closure plans for 24 of the 36 ash ponds. In every case, it has proposed excavation and reburial. However, Garry Miller, head of closure engineering for Duke, said that might not be the case for the remaining 12 ponds. He said that the engineering work that remains to be done at those plants could yet show that a 'cap in place' process, which critics have said would be insufficient to protect against further contamination of groundwater, can effectively close them.

Miller said that none of the waste ash from Duke's 36 ash ponds would undergo beneficial reuse, the process of using the ash for commercial products such as a replacement for Portland cement in concrete and gypsum board. However, he added that Duke does send a portion of the dry ash it is currently producing at its largest plants for reuse. However, the time constraints imposed by North Carolina's Coal Ash Management Act of 2014 make it impossible for the existing ash ponds. "As we close these basins, the quantity in them is such that the market cannot handle it in a timely manner," said Miller.

Duke's current cost estimate for closing the ponds is US$3.4bn, although this is subject to revision.

Canada: A British Colombia programme that recycles Keurig coffee K-Cups into cement has been so successful that it may expand into Alberta. The Lafarge cement plant in Kamloops, British Colombia, Canada used about 1.4m K-Cups as ash in its cement in 2014 after teaming up with Van Houtte Coffee Services, which collects the used pods for recycling.

"I think we've been fairly successful here," said Eric Isenor, the Lafarge Kamlooops plant manager. "Van Houtte is happy with the programme so far and is looking to expand." He added that the company might start collecting the used pods in Alberta, Canada for recycling in British Colombia.

The single-serving coffee pods are not recyclable because they are a mixture of materials coffee grounds, a paper filter, plastic cup and foil top that cannot be efficiently separated. After collecting the used coffee pods, Van Houtte, a coffee service that delivers supplies to offices and retailers around Kamloops, brings them in large bins to the Lafarge cement plant for processing. The pods are dried out, shredded and heated to 2000°C to form ash, which is then used for cement production.

Philippines: Lafarge Republic and the Global Business Power Corporation (GBPC) has launched an initiative aimed to lower the costs of rehabilitation projects, such as the rebuilding efforts for Yolanda and the Bohol earthquake-affected areas, through the introduction of a ash-based cement called called Kapit-Balay cement.

Kapit-Balay cement is a result of the Total Ash management partnership between Lafarge Republic and GBPC. Under this collaboration, Lafarge uses the fly ash from GBPC's power generation processes to produce blended cement. Under the partnership, the two companies worked on optimising the cost of producing the ash-cement, which enables them to contribute in lowering the overall cost of rebuilding with the additional support from Lafarge's packaging partner and a direct sales distribution model to rehabilitation projects.