Displaying items by tag: Fly Ash

India: Kiran Global Chems has launched Geocement, an environmentally-friendly branded cement. The company claims that the product is stronger than Ordinary Portland Cement and that it does not require water for mixing or curing, according to local media.

Geocement is made from Geopowder and Geobinder, other products also made by Kiran Global Chems. Geopowder uses industrial by-products such as fly ash, rice husk ash, slag, activated clay and alumina. At construction sites it can be mixed with the company's proprietary Geobinder liquid and aggregates to make concrete. The company claims that Geocement does not require water curing and attains maximum strength within seven hours. Kiran Global Chems has also launched Geocrete, a Geocement concrete made with its powder and binder for various industrial applications.

"We have started distributing this to the bulk customers, such as builders and now we are launching the brand for retail. We are planning to sell it through e-commerce," said M S Jain, chairman of Kiran Global Chems. The price of Geocement will be slightly higher than normal cement, but it promises lower finished building cost and less construction time and labour. The company intends to target southern Indian states in 2016.

Kiran Global is also preparing a US$29m expansion programme to set up 12 Geobinder units, 12 Geopowder plants, two precast concrete units and four grinding units across the country. The expansion, is intended to cut logistics cost, will result in 4Mt of capacity with a potential turnover of up to US$300m by the 2018 – 2019 financial year. The company has an in-house research and development centre, accredited by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, and has been conducting geopolymer research in collaboration with leading research institutes.

Vietnam: According to Vietnam News Brief Service, deputy prime minister Hoang Trung Hai has agreed to allow Nghi Son Cement Corporation to continue the pilot import of fly ash as a raw material for its cement production.

The deputy prime minister had earlier agreed to allow Nghi Son Cement Corporation to import no more than 200,000t/yr of fly ash in 2015 - 2016. He also requested the company to develop a plan to use domestic fly ash for cement production from 2017.

Vietnam has a huge supply of fly ash. It is estimated that the thermal power plants in Vietnam produce 4.5Mt/yr of fly ash. The figure is expected to hit 35Mt/yr in 2030. According to Vietnam News Brief Service, agencies, companies and localities have not shown their willingness to share interests with others, leading to fly ash sourcing difficulties for many companies.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the first national regulations to provide for the safe disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. The ruling establishes safeguards to protect communities from coal ash impoundment failures and establishes safeguards to prevent groundwater contamination and air emissions from coal ash disposal.

"The EPA is taking action to protect our communities from the risk of mismanaged coal ash disposal units and putting in place safeguards to help prevent the next catastrophic coal ash impoundment failure, which can cost millions for local businesses, communities and States," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

The new federal regulations include:

• The closure of surface impoundments and landfills that fail to meet engineering and structural standards and will no longer receive coal ash;
• Reducing the risk of catastrophic failure by requiring regular inspections of the structural safety of surface impoundments;
• Restrictions on the location of new surface impoundments and landfills so that they cannot be built in sensitive areas such as wetlands and earthquake zones;
• Protecting groundwater by requiring monitoring, immediate clean up of contamination and closure of unlined surface impoundments that are polluting groundwater;
• Protecting communities using fugitive dust controls to reduce windblown coal ash dust;
• Requiring liner barriers for new units and proper closure of surface impoundments and landfills that will no longer receive coal combustion residues.

In response to feedback on the proposal, the ruling clarifies the technical requirements for coal ash landfills and surface impoundments under Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the country's primary law for regulating solid waste. Implementation of the technical requirements will be reported through disclosure to States, and communities. Examples of this include power plants providing information to the public and States and new transparency requirements, including recordkeeping and reporting requirements, as well as the requirement for each facility to post specific information to a publicly-accessible website. This final rule also supports the responsible recycling of coal ash by distinguishing safe, beneficial use from disposal.

India: In response to local concerns over the open-filling of fly-ash, an NTPC-owned thermal power plant in Kahalgaon, Bihar will install bagging machines for its fly-ash production. The facility provides fly-ash to cement makers in the northeast and is setting up six packing machines filling a total of 4800bags/hr or 4000t/day. The facility had been warned by the pollution control board, which has asked NTPC to deposit US$16,243 as security against the prescribed environmental measures. The board has said that the plant will be closed if it continues to violate the 'norms' by open-filling the sacks.

Qatar: Four Qatari companies have shown interest in buying fly ash from Tata Power, which operates a 4000MW plant in Mundra, Gujarat, India. The plant consumes about 40,000t/day of imported coal and generates around 1600t/day of fly ash. Currently two cement makers in Gujarat and one from Rajasthan collect 100 – 200t/day of fly ash from the Mundra plant.

India: Shree Cement plans to set up a 3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Odapada in Dhenkanal District, Odisha State for about US$76.6m. The location will enable the cement maker to utilise the fly ash produced at the power plants owned by Lanco Badband Power, GMR Kamalanga, Navabharat Ventures and Bhushan Steel based in the region. The plant will be built on an area covering 0.24km² of land which will be allotted by the district administration on Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation's request.

Japan: Nippon Paper Industries has announced that it will jointly launch a new project with Zerotechno, located in Oita city, to produce and sell fly ash to the cement industry. Both companies will establish the Nippon Paper Zerotechno Tohoku limited liability partnership on 1 July 2014, which is to be based at the site of Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Mill in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture. The purpose of the project is to contribute to restoration of Tohoku district from the earthquake disaster by expanding use of carbon-free fly ash derived from coal ash that coal-fired boilers emit at Ishinomaki Mill.

US: Titan America has announced that it has recently formed ST Equipment & Technology LLC (STET), in order to further expand the development of its separation technology in fly ash and mineral applications worldwide. STET will be based in Needham, Massachussetts, US.

Mike Allen, who recently joined the Titan family of businesses, will serve as STET's President. His experience spans 30 years in international mining and minerals equipment and operations, most recently as Komatsu America Corp's Vice President of International Sales. He reports to current Titan America CEO, Aris Papadopoulos, who will become STET's Executive Chairman on 1 August 2014.

Chile: Chile-based utility company E-CL and Cementos Bío Bío's Antofagasta plant have signed a contract that is related to the reuse of fly ash for cement production.

After a long process of development and testing between the two companies, the ash that is captured by filters from the central generating units Thermal Andina (CTA) and Thermal Power Hornitos (CTH) in Mejillones, is used to replace natural pozzolan in Cementos Bío Bío's cement products.

Cementos Bío Bío expects to consume 70% of the daily production of fly ash from the CTA and CTH generating units. The project will bring a huge environmental benefit, since prior to this agreement, all the ash was deposited in landfills. The ash is a non-hazardous waste with similar properties to natural pozzolan, so its use in place of pozzolan means that the cement maintains its durability and strength.

Carlos Ferruz, manager of generation sites and E-CL, said that, "This initiative gives a new use for the ash, incorporating this non-hazardous waste as a raw material to a useful product such as cement. Loading, transport and unloading is performed without generating pollution." Ferruz added, "Usually the ash resulting from electricity generation is taken to a landfill, but with this innovation the ash acquires a new use and proves to be a real contribution to the environmental sustainability policies of both companies."

Germany: ENTECCOgroup announced on 2 December 2013 that it has acquired Turbofilter GmbH in order to further strengthen its activities in the steel and flue gas cleaning industry.

Turbofilter GmbH, founded by Fritz von Opel in Essen in 1958, has more than 50 years of experience in offering process-oriented solutions for industrial dust removal and flue and exhaust gas cleaning worldwide. It manufactures standard filters and complicated turnkey plants in the field of environmental technology.

"The union with the ENTECCOgroup and the restructuring of Turbofilter GmbH concerning long-term job and location security, as well as the positioning in the market, are the right steps at the right time. Together with the ENTECCOgroup we will speed up our expansion even faster," said Rainer Bertling and Jürgen Waller, shareholder and manager of Turbofilter GmbH.

ENTECCOgroup has made the environmental technology industry a priority. The industry expanded from US$560m in 2003 to US$744m in 2010 and currently employs more than 3.5 million workers in Europe. These numbers are expected to double by 2020.