Fly Ash: Management in Kota

Fly Ash: Management in Kota

  • Jul 1st, 2001

In Modern Age Electricity Is Required In Every Aspect Of Living. More And More Electricity Is Required With The Pace Of Improvement Of Quality Of Life. Virtually The Electricity Has Become Life Line Of Present Era. Out Of Various Sources Of Electricity, Coal Based Thermal Power Generation Is One Of The Cheapest And Safe Mode Of Power Generation. This Has Resulted In Growth Of Coal Based Thermal Power Plants In The Country In Course Of Planning. In These Plants Coal Is Burnt To Produce Electricity Which Results In The Huge Quantity Of Ash As Residue Which Is Mixed With Water And Pumped To Ash Ponds. This Disposal Method Requires Huge Area And Ash Is Blown Up Due To Wind And May Cause Lung Related Diseases In The Habitants Living Nearby.

Kota District Houses State Owned KTPS (Kota Thermal Power Station) Power Plant With An Installed Capacity Of 8.50 M.W.  AndA Captive Power Plant Of 85 M.W. Capacity In Private Sector In Shreeram Fertilizers And Chemicals. These Plants on an Average Products. Future Extension Of Area Of Dyke Is Not Possible Owing To Non-Availability Of Land In The Vicinity Of KTPS. These Figures Are Sufficient To Show The Magnitude Of The Problem Of Ash Management.

Similar Situation Exists In Other Parts Of The Country Where Coal Based Thermal Power Plants Are Installed. Needless To Mention That Simple Disposal Of Ash In Dyke Is Not A Long Term Solution Of The Problem. The Other Technological Ways And Means Have Been Developed All Over The Country In Last Ten To Fifteen Years For Alternative Use Of Fly Ash. The District Administration And KTPS To Disseminate And Popularize The Technique And Products Of Fly Ash. These Efforts Have Resulted Increase Of About 700 Percent In Fly Ash Utilization In Last Two To Three Years. At Present About 800 Metric Tons Of Ash Is Being Utilised Per Day. FollowingParas Narrates The Various Aspects Of Increased Fly Ash Utilization In Kota District.

The Major Utilisation Of Fly Ash Is Cement Plants. As We Are Aware That Cement Plants Produce Ordinary Portland cement (OPC).  Pulverized Ash In Certain Quantity Can Be Mixed In It Without Any Significant Processing At The Plant. The New Product Is Popularly Known as PuzzolonaPortland cement (PPC). The Strength Of PPC Is Almost The Same That Of OPC With An Added Advantage Of Law Cost And Free From Adverse Effect Of Free Lime Present In OPC. Associated Cement Company (ACC), LakheriWas First Cement Plant Which Started Lifting Fly Ash From KTPS ACC, LakheriUsed To Lift About 10,000 To 15,000 Metric Tons Of Ash From KTPS Against Annual Production Of About 10 Lac Metric Tons Till 1996. As Mentioned In Earlier Paras, The Ash Is Pumped To Dykes After Mixing With Water, The New Mechanical Arrangement Was Developed By KTPS For Collection Of ‘Dry Ash’. This Resulted In Easier Handling of Ash and Also Had Better Characteristics. Birla Cements Chittorgarh, Shree Cement Beawar, J.K.  CementNimaheraAnd Recently Mangalam Cement Morak Started Lifting Ash From KTPS Besides ACC LakheriAs A Result Of Administrative Efforts. The Results Are Encouraging As It Can Be Seen From Following Bar Chart.

It is evident form above figure that the lifting by cement plants which was just negligible in the year 1996-97 at 5,827 MT has gone upto 49,355 MT in the year 1997-98 and 1,28,225 MT in 1989-99.In the year 1999-2000 the increase of almost twice that of the year 1998-99. In the year 2000-2001, till November the lifting is about 31% of the ash produced by KTPS and total ash utolosation of the plant is likely to exceed 3 lac metric tons in the current year. Enlightened with the results of KTPS, Shreeram Fertilizers and Chemicals (SFC), Kota has also started utilising about 50 mentric tons of their ash in their own cement plant per day. Some part of ash of SFC was intermittently taken by mangalam Cement Morak also.

Presently, 96 to 98% of total ash utilisation is in Cement plants. As we have seen about 70% of total ash produced is still unutilized because there is limit for addition of ash to Cement and no more Cement plants Coming up in near future. For further utilisation of ash attention on other products has to be given. The other major source can be brick manufacture utilising  fly ash. Now technology is available which can utilise  fly ash for brick manufacturing . The only thing required is to build a favourable environment.

Facilitation and Enforcement

Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India  has issued a notification on 14 September, 1999 under Environment ( Protection) Act 1986 (Published in Gazette of India extraordinary dated 14 September, 1999) to protect the environment, conserve top soil and prevent dumping of fly ash discharged from coal based thermal power plants. Facilitating industrial units using fly ash and enforcing other provisions of this notification is an important aspect to achieve the real results.

The very first step was to identify suitable site for setting up of fly ash based industrial in the vicinity of KTPS so that the transportation of ash is not expensive. Suitable area near KTPS was indentified but the land was forest land. After persistent persuasion by District Administration, Kota the above land measuring 44.69 hectares was diverted for setting up factories for utilisation of fly ash in favour of Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Ltd (RllCO) by Government of India under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. RllO has developed total of 39 plots for allotment to willig entrepreneur and till now 30 entrepreneurs have come forward and have purchased plots for industrial units. More over the fly ash based products are newly developed, their production cost could not compete with the products cost of the same product with conventional material unless some concessions are provided to these entrepreneurs. Looking to this  aspect  RllCO has allotted the land to these entrepreneurs at a very concessional price of Rs. 12/- per square metre only in the  beginning and RS.25/- per square metre to the subsequent applicants. The laying of electric distribution main lines has been done by the Electricity Board at own cost in order to reduce the cost of development . Two fly ash based brick units have already started their manufacturing.

The pace of commissioning of the fly ash based products was not as good as it was envisaged. The major problem was that these items were not included in the Basic Schedule of Rates (BSR) OF public Works Department. The matter was taken up by the District Administration with the State Government . Ultimately State Government   agreed to the proposal of the District Administration and Public Work Department has included Fly ash bricks in the departmental BSR.

In view of enforcing the provisions of the notification issued by Government of India dated 14 September,  1999, a circular has been issued by the District Administration on 12 july, 2000. The circular includes the probable areas where fly ash can be utilized including cement plants and manufacture of brick. Lt has also been directed in the circular that the existing brick kiln within the radius of 50 kilometers of  Kota should use atleast 25% of fly ash in their brick manufacture. It has also been suggested  that various departments should utilise fly ash for embankment, filing low lying area, land leveling, plantation of abandoned mines, etc.

Mass Awareness

Fly ash based products presently manufactured has to replace conventional materials in use for centuries. This requires transforming mind set of present day users. Unless, there is public acceptance of the new products, the fly ash based  production manufacturing  industries cannot flourish. A workshop cum symposium was organised by KTPS in the year 1998 on fly ash disposal and utilisation. The local public got an opportunity to hear the success stories from experienced entrepreneurs. Local press also give coverage to this activity and it provided some attraction of public attention towards the gravity of fly ash generation problem and its utilization.  Engineering college, kota has also associated with the mass awareness programme through guiding entrepreneurs at various public platform such as hadoti udyog mela, entrepreneurs development programme organized  by district industries center(DIC) and institute of engineers, etc. this could created some awareness among the masses and entrepreneurs but the results were not very encouraging.

A national workshop on “BSR items for fly ash products ” was organised by engineering college, kota on 22 april, 2000 which was attended by the officials of district administration also. In addition to inclusion of more and more fly ash based items in BSR, it was also felt that the mass awareness still require greater attention \. Looking to this it was suggested by collector, kota that a formal committee should be constituted to look after the affairs of fly ash utilisation on a regular basis. A standing committee named as”fly Ash Mission Kota(FAMK)” has been constituted on 16 june, 2000 under the chairmanship of collector , Kota . The other members are officials and non- officials of related field. The main objectives of this missin are mass awareness and ensuring implementation of various regulations in this regards. Till now two meetings of this mission have been convened and the results are encouraging which can be seen from the percentage increase in lifting of fly ash form KTPS dykes.

Imaginative and effective disposal of fly ash necessitates active role not only on the part of the Power plants but a collaborative efforts by industry, academia, administration, non-governmental organisations, media and environmental groups. The efforts made by Kota is an example in this direction.