Displaying items by tag: Ash

Philippines: Aboitiz Group food and agriculture subsidiary Pilmico Foods says that it has developed a waste ash-based concrete mix that contains 20% less cement than its previous mix and that “can be used for all of the company’s construction needs.” The Manila Bulletin newspaper has reported that the ash is sourced from burnt rice husks, a fuel source for Pilmico’s food production and itself a by-product of its operations. Central Maintenance Department mechanical supervisor Michael Cayabyab said, “When we started using the biomass boiler almost two years ago, we saw process improvements and reduced costs. But in Pilmico, we know that the challenge does not stop there." The company has yet to commercialise the concrete, however it hopes to inspire others with its “demonstration of the circular economy demolishing the divide between industries.”

India: State-owned energy supplier NTPC Limited has announced the shipment of 3450t of fly ash from its 3.0GW Rihand power station in Uttar Pradesh to Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim subsidiary ACC Cement’s 3.0Mt/yr Tikaria grinding plant, also in Uttar Pradesh. The Orissa Diary newspaper has reported that the shipment – the first from a new purpose-built rail depot – over 458km is part of NTPC Limited’s commitment to 100% total fly ash utilisation, up from 73% in the 2020 financial year, ended 31 March 2020. ACC supply chain head Suresh Rathi said, “This will pave the way for efficient and safe transportation of all fly ash from power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantity.”

NTPC Limited generates some 60.5Mt/yr of fly ash alongside 62.9GW of power.

US: Charah Solutions has secured a contract with energy supplier Entergy for provision of environmental services to three coal-fired power plants in Louisiana and Arkansas. The gives Charah Solutions the right to dispose of or market 0.9Mt/yr of coal combustion residuals (CCR), including to cement producers in the region for use as a cement additive.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has installed an ash washing facility at a waste incineration plant in Kumagaya, Saitama prefecture for desalination and lowering of chloride content. After rinsing, the installation will supplement cement production at Taiheiyo Cement’s 1.8Mt/yr integrated Kumagaya plant with up to 69,400t/yr of ash. The total cost of investment was US$7.17m.

Brazil: A research team at the University of São Paolo (USP) has concluded a study of cement hydration and pozzolanic activity when using 10% sugarcane bagasse (SB) and bamboo leaf ash (BLA) mixture. A paper released by the team has stated that the additive lowered the calcium hydroxide and heat required for hydration, saving on costs and emissions in cement production. Both binary and ternary concretes had higher compressive strengths with than without the mineral-rich additive. The study was supported by public and private funding.

US: Elixsys has completed a 100hr continuous pilot test to extract ammonium sulphate and calcium carbonate from flue gas desulphurisation solids at a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania. Products made using the company’s proprietary process meet the specifications for fertiliser-quality ammonium sulphate and technical-grade calcium carbonate.

The company intends to start a commercial-scale project of its technology in 2019 once it finds a utility partner. Full-scale operations are planned by 2022. The company is also starting pilot testing on another process to extract metals from coal ash.

Poland: Lafarge Poland officially opened the Siekierki ash separation plant in July 2018. The unit was developed with local power generation company PGNiG Termika. The plant uses technology from the US’ Separation Technologies, using its proprietry electrostatic process.

The unit converts fly ash into two products: ProAsh containing less than 5% flammable parts and HiCarbon fuel containing about 30 - 50% flammable parts. ProAsh ash is used as a construction product used in cement production, ready-mix concrete and prefabricated construction. HiCarbon is used as a fuel because it contains significant amounts of unburnt carbon and so it can be reused in furnaces.

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFEP&WM) awarded the project a loan of around Euro9m. PGNiG Termika operates a 2078MW coal-power plant at Siekierki.

Italy: Cemitaly has been allowed to use slag and ash in cement production at its Taranto plant following an investigation, according to the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper. The former Cementir unit was investigated in 2017 as part of an illegal waste probe that examined whether the Taranto plant purchased ‘illegal’ by-products from Enel and the ILVA steel plant to produce cement.

UK: The UK Quality Ash Association (UKQAA) has appointed Tarmac’s Allan Everett as the association’s new chair, taking over from Power Minerals’ Ivan Skidmore. Everett will be joined by Richard Boult, who has also been announced as the UKQAA’s new Technical Committee Chair. Boult is Commercial Technical Manager at Cemex UK. He will work with UKQAA’s Technical Committee members to develop and assess technical projects exploring new sources and uses for quality ash.

The UKQAA is an industry association for the use of quality ash in construction and engineering applications and represents a range of members from across the construction supply chain.

Chile: AES Gener is exploring options to sell by-products from its Guacolda coal-fired power station to cement producers. The power-generation company has asked for permission to do so and has approached Polpaico, owned by Holcim, and BSA, owned by Hurtado Vicuna group, according to the Diario Financiero newspaper. Guacolda produces around 40,000t/yr of synthetic gypsum and 60,000t/yr of Ash. AES Gener is already selling 30,000t/yr or half of the ash generated at its Ventanas power plant, to Melón. The company also has agreements in place with a number of universities to explore the use of these materials in concrete, cement, agriculture and mining activities.