Ashok K. Singh · Reginald Ebhin Masto · Bodhisatwa Hazra · Joan Esterle · Pradeep K. Singh Ash from Coal and Biomass Combustion Ash from Coal and Biomass Combustion Ashok K. Singh Reginald Ebhin Masto (cid:129) (cid:129) Bodhisatwa Hazra Joan Esterle (cid:129) (cid:129) Pradeep K. Singh Ash from Coal and Biomass Combustion 123 Ashok K.Singh ReginaldEbhin Masto Council of ScientificandIndustrial Council of ScientificandIndustrial Research—Central Institute of Mining Research—Central Institute of Mining andFuelResearch andFuelResearch Dhanbad, Jharkhand,India Dhanbad, Jharkhand,India Bodhisatwa Hazra JoanEsterle Council of ScientificandIndustrial Schoolof EarthandEnvironmental Science Research—Central Institute of Mining University of Queensland andFuelResearch St Lucia, QLD,Australia Dhanbad, Jharkhand,India Pradeep K.Singh Council of ScientificandIndustrial Research—Central Institute of Mining andFuelResearch Dhanbad, Jharkhand,India ISBN978-3-030-56980-8 ISBN978-3-030-56981-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56981-5 ©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Coal and Biomass: More than just energy resources Preface Generationofhugeamountsofashfromcombustionofcoalandbiomassinpower plants is a major concern for the environmental managers and technologists of the plants. China, India, USA, Japan, and Korea are the major coal producers of the world. Recentregulations inmany countries demand100% utilization oftheashes produced after combustion for generating energy. The heterogeneous nature of the coal and biomass ashes, wide varieties of the utilization options available, and the environmental issues associated with the ash made the subject of ash very inter- esting and challenging. Our research on coals and biomass from various perspec- tivesinrecentyearshasledustorealizethatalthoughasubstantialbodyofresearch has built-up over many decades especially on their combustion aspects, a com- prehensive discussion with these two resources together in a same platform has been missing. Such realization has stimulated us to compile this monograph. The full domain of coal and biomass ash is presented in the book, under five chapters. The purpose of the monograph is to give a fundamental understanding of the ash properties, generation, bulk and value-added utilization sectors, and the environmental issues. This piece of work would be a valuable repository for wide spectrum of audience covering students, managers, environmentalists, and policy makersassociatedwithashandenvironment.Inaddition,thiscompilationofallthe informationonashwillhelptheresearchers togetaquickoverviewonthesubject matter. We introduce the subject in Chap. 1 covering the importance of coal-based energy and the science behind the ash generation in power plants. Both coal and biomass generate ash of very distinct nature, volume, and properties. The detailed characterizationcoveringphysical,chemical,andotherspecialpropertiesoftheash aredetailedinChap.2.Thedifferentoptionsavailablefortheuseofashalongwith the basic minimum description of all the utilization sectors and the suitability of ashes for each sector are discussed in Chap. 3. Chapter 4 addresses the environ- mentalissuesassociatedwiththeflyashusealongwiththebasicchemistriesofthe origin of potentially toxic elements in ash, their leachability and potential hazard, and finally the long-term fate of the ash and the different abatement options vii viii Preface available to decrease the environmental concerns. The key outcome of this com- pilation is summarized in Chap. 5. Wehopethismonographwouldbeaninterestingcontributioninthefieldofcoal and biomass ash sectors, and excites the readers to think more about ash. Dhanbad, India Pradeep K. Singh June 2020 AcknowledgementsTheDirector,CSIR-CentralInstituteofMiningandFuelResearch,Indiais acknowledged for granting permission to publish this work, and also for providing necessary infrastructuretocarry-outthework. Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 Genesis and Characteristics of Coal and Biomass Ash . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.1 Generation of Coal Combustion Residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.2 Generation of Biomass Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2.3 Characterization of Coal and Biomass Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.1 Particle Size Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.3.2 Surface Area and Porosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.3.3 Major Oxide Composition of Ash Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3.4 Unburnt Carbon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2.4 Micro-morphology of Fly Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3 Utilization of Coal and Biomass Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.2 Agriculture and Forestry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.2.1 Impact of Ash on Soil Physical Properties of Soil . . . . . . . 38 3.2.2 Impact of Ash on Chemical Properties of Soil. . . . . . . . . . 41 3.2.3 Impact of Ash on Biological Properties of Soil . . . . . . . . . 45 3.2.4 Impact of Fly Ash on Plant-Growth and Plant-Yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3.3 Utilization of Fly Ash in Cement and Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 3.3.1 High Volume Fly Ash Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3.3.2 Roller-Compacted Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.3.3 Self-compacting Concrete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3.3.4 Use of Biomass Ash in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3.3.5 Advantage of Using Fly Ash in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3.3.6 Disadvantages of Using Fly Ash in Concrete . . . . . . . . . . 55 ix x Contents 3.4 Bricks, Blocks, and Lightweight Aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.4.1 Bricks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.4.2 Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.4.3 Lightweight Aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.5 Ceramic Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.6 Road Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 3.7 Mine Backfilling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 3.8 Extraction of Value-Added Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3.8.1 Cenosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3.8.2 Unburnt Carbon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.8.3 Extraction of Rare Earth Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 3.8.4 Aerogels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.8.5 Zeolite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 3.9 Niche Areas of Ash Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.9.1 Catalyst. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.9.2 Adsorption of Toxic Elements and Organic Compounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.9.3 Fertilizer from Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 3.9.4 Carbon Sequestration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4 Environmental Effects of Coal and Biomass Ash Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 4.1 Toxic Components in Ash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 4.1.1 Organic Pollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 4.1.2 Inorganic Pollutants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.1.3 Human Health Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 4.2 Leaching Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 4.3 Chemical Speciation and Weathering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 4.4 Toxic Substance in Products Prepared from Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 4.5 Abatement of Ash Toxicity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Chapter 1 Introduction Abstract Coal,anaturallyoccurringlaminatedorganic-sedimentaryrock,hasbeen asourceofenergyforseveraldecades.Beingcomposedofessentiallylithified-plant materials,whichwereinitiallydepositedinswampyenvironments,coalisaunique fossilfuelusedforavarietyofindustrialanddomesticpurposes.Likewise,biomass isarenewablesolidfuelusedforelectricitygenerationandformeetingthedomestic and industrial thermal energy needs. Energy extraction by combustion of coal and biomassgenerateslargeamountofash,whichisasolidwaste.Thequantumofash generatedfromcoalandbiomasssectorandtheirpotentialutilizationisdiscussedin thischapter. Coal,anaturallyoccurringlaminatedorganic-sedimentaryrock,hasbeenasourceof energyformanysinceseveraldecades.Beingcomposedofessentiallylithified-plant materials,whichwereinitiallydepositedinswampyenvironments,coalisaunique fossilfuelusedforavarietyofindustrialanddomesticpurposes.Theprimaryuse ofcoaltilldateistoproducesteamforelectricitygenerationthroughcombustion. The major coal-producing countries across the world are China, India, USA, Australia,andIndonesia.Coalismainlyusedforgenerationofelectricityinpower plants.Country-wisecoalproduction duringtheyear 2018 (www.bp.com2019) is giveninFig.1.1.Inspiteofthebloomofrenewableenergyresources,globally,coal remainsasthemainsourceforelectricitygeneration.Worldwide,coalaccountsfor anaveragecontributionof37%ofthetotalelectricitygeneration.Eversincefromthe establishmentoffirstcommercialpowerplantintheyear1822atPearlStreetStation, NewYork,USA,thecoal-basedelectricitygenerationhasdevelopedtremendously. Currently, China, USA, India, Japan, and South Korea are the topmost coal-based electricity-generatingcountries(Table1.1). Coal, for some time now, has attracted the attention of several researchers and policy makers due to its negative impact on atmosphere (Ward and Suárez-Ruiz 2008). While the importance of coal in meeting energy requirements is hardly doubted,therisingCO levelsintheatmospherehasbeenapointofglobalconcern. 2 The contribution of coal combustion in CO release to the atmosphere has caught 2 the eyes of the world (World Coal Institute 2005; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency2005;CommissionoftheEuropeanCommunities2005).Consequently,in ©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 1 A.K.Singhetal.,AshfromCoalandBiomassCombustion, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56981-5_1