Coal Ash Institute of India organises a first of its kind workshop on utilities of Bottom Ash

Kolkata: Coal Ash Institute of India (CAII) organised a first of its kind Workshop on "Partial Replacement of Sand with Bottom Ash" at Bhangore in South 24 parganas district of West Bengal.

The workshop aimed at creating awareness about the utilities of bottom ash which can change the Construction Industry & control Environment Pollution, a CAII spokesperson here today said.

The Coal Ash produced from power plants plays a major role in the shaping of society at large.

In Kolkata, people are using Flyash brick, Ready Mix Concrete, Cement Plant using Flyash but bottom ash which is approx 20 per cent of total ash production (200 million tons per year) has till date no effective utilization in India except land filling.

CAII focuses to utilize this bottom ash in Concrete and Mortar, expecting active support for safeguarding the future of land and promotes utilisation of bottom ash to generate local employment with empowerment.

The event also highlighted how the Govt. has not taken any step till date for utilization of bottom ash/Pond ash compared to enormous efforts to utilize Fly ash in Bricks, Cement, Concrete etc. It also raised concern and asked to promote this material as substitution of river sand.

Dr R N Pranesh, PhD in Civil Engineering, Visveswaraya Technological University and Prof. Arun Kumar Chakraborty, Indian Institute Of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, Howrah, along with many renowned Participants from Construction & Education Industry were present to share the specifications.

USP of the Workshop: Coal used in thermal power plants produces enormous quantity of ash as residue and deposited in large fields creating serious environmental issues. Deposition of this ash has reached alarming proportions and this issue needs to be addressed effectively by evolving different methods of utilizing ash in large quantities. Construction industry will play a major role in this direction.

Fine aggregate (sand) deposits required for both concrete and mortar in construction industry is dwindling at an alarming rate. Also, in most of the places sand mining is restricted / prohibited resulting in large scarcity of fine aggregate material.

Thermal power plant waste deposited in large tract of land can be an alternate to this sand. Studies have shown that pond ash can be tried as replacement to sand in concrete and mortar. Proper understanding and possible utilization of this can be a solution to both the environmental problems.