Relevance: Prelims/Mains: G.S paper III: Environment
Why in news?
NTPC Ltd., a central PSU under Ministry of Power and country’s largest power generation company, has developed an infrastructure at Rihand project in Uttar Pradesh to transport fly ash in bulk to cement plants, located at distance, at a cheaper cost. The development is in line with NTPC’s commitment towards 100 percent utilization of fly ash from power plants.
About
As per a statement issued by NTPC Ltd., the first rake of 59 BOXN type of railway wagons carrying 3450 Metric Tonne (MT) of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power station for ACC Cement Manufacturing Plant, Tikaria, U.P. located at a distance of 458 kms , in presence of other senior officials of NTPC Rihand.
To transfer the first tranche, officials from NTPC Rihand approached East Central Railway along with leading cement producers to commence the supply of fly ash in BOXN wagons covered with tarpaulin.
The innovation will pave the way for efficient and safer transportation of fly ash from the power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantity.
The effort marks the beginning of a new era for the transportation of fly ash from a remote location to a consumption centre, enabling power plants for upgrading the utilization of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues for Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to the cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price.
During the financial year 2019-20, almost 44.33 million tonnes of fly ash was utilized for various productive purposes, being 73.31% of the ash generated.
Moreover, company is looking at new avenues of fly ash management like fly ash based geo-polymer road, use of bottom ash as replacement of fine aggregate (sand) in cement concrete. Also, NTPC has plans to set up fly ash classifier unit for export purposes.
What is Fly Ash?
• Fly ash is a fine powder, which is the by-product of burning coal in thermal power plants.
• Fly ash includes substantial amounts micron sized earth elements of oxides of silica, aluminum and calcium. Element like Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, lead etc. are also found in trace concentrations.
Environmental Concerns Associated with Fly Ash
• Fly ash is a major source of PM 2.5, fine, pollution particles, in summer it causes air pollution.
• It becomes air borne, and gets transported to a radius of 10 to 20 kms. It can settle on water and other surfaces. It can also contaminate water and soil systems.
• Fly ash contains heavy metals from coal, a large amount of PM 2.5 and black carbon (BC). Proper disposal of fly ash is still not happening in many places.
• The wet disposal of Fly ash results in leaching of toxic heavy metals in ground water system.
Utilization of Fly Ash
• Fly ash can be used as a replacement for some of the Portland cement contents of concrete. It is environmentally beneficial because it reduces the Portland cement, a major contributor of CO2, required in concrete.
• Fly ash is a proven resource material for many applications of construction industries and currently is being utilized in manufacturing of bricks/blocks/tiles.
• Central Government has made it mandatory for use of fly ash bricks in construction activities happening 500 km around thermal power plants.
• Fly ash is used as an agent for acidic soils, as soil conditioner. It improve some important physicochemical properties of the soil such as hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, porosity, water holding capacity, etc.
Fly Ash Management
• Indian coal has much more ash content than other countries quality-wise. Diverse approaches must be needed for fly ash management.
• It includes washing coal at its place of origin will prevent ash from coming to power plant.
• Promoting R&D for increasing efficiency of power plants will also help in reducing ash generation.
• Proper management of fly ash is important for environment and also for power plants as it occupies a lot of land space.
Fly Ash utilization Policy in India
• Maharashtra has become the first state to adopt Fly Ash Utilization Policy, paving way for prosperity by generating “wealth from waste”, and environment protection.
• The policy will create new employment opportunities in the power plant areas and also make available raw material for construction at low cost to help ‘Housing for All’ projects.
• The policy seeks 100% use of fly ash generated from thermal power plants and biogas plants for construction activities.
• The policy extends use of fly ash to 300 kms radius of power plant from earlier 100 kms radius of power plant.
• It will help in environment protection and save soil excavation.
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