UTILIZATION OF WASTE FLY-ASH AND ITS POTENTIAL

USES IN CERAMICS
Piyush Kumar Barik
Dept. of Ceramic Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela

Abstract

Potential Uses

Fly ash is a waste material

dominatingly produced in the
production of electricity. As a gig
scale material, it speaks to a
potential major ecological risk; in
any case, as a result of its mass
mineralogy and science, it can
serve as a wellspring of materials
for vast volume, low tech
applications.

Cement Production : Fly ash contains

24-27% lime, silicates and
aluminosilicates. A special application
for MSW fly ash in this area could be
in low energy cements, also called
calcium sulfoaluminate cements.
These are special cements that can
be synthesized at low temperatures
and which present high strength and
rapid hardening.

The topic of the poster focuses

on potential uses of waste fly-ash
in construction materials i.e.
cement, concrete, ceramics,
glass and glassceramics. Each
application is analysed in detail,
including final-product technical
characteristics,

Concrete : Fly ash contains some

typical cement minerals because of
which it can be used as partial
replacement of cement in concrete
mixes. Replacement levels of 45%
(RDF fly ash) resulted in concrete
strength equivalent to control (no fly
ash, all cement), for 15%
replacement the concrete showed
compressive strength higher than the
control, which is notable.

Introduction

Ceramics : fly ash is presented as a

fine dust so it can be directly
incorporated into ceramic pastes,
with almost no pre-treatment. The
tested ceramic tile contained 50%
incinerator ash with good durability
result. Produced tiles were applied in
outside and inside pavement and
exterior facing of walls.

Current annual production of fly

ash from coal based thermal
power plants is 112 million
tonnes. Some of the problems
associated with fly ash are large
area of land required for disposal
and toxicity associated with
heavy metal leached to
groundwater.

Glass Ceramics : fly ash can be

vitrified to glass like substance. The
vitrified fly ash were used as blasting
grit, ceramic tiles, water permeable
blocks& pavement bricks. They
include higher hardness, better
workability, high TSR, strength&
fracture toughness.

The results presented here to

show new possibilities for this
waste reuse in a short-term, in a
wide range of fields, resulting in
significant advantages in waste
reduction including resources
conservation
(

Objectives

Table below summarizes the major

aspects regarding fly ash
applications. The following factors
are analyzed i.e. application, level of
application, potential uses, major
advantages etc.
Table 1.Summarization of fly ash application
Application

Level of Application

Potential Uses

Major Advantages

Cement
Production

High

Production of alumino-silicate
cements; Production of other cements

Reduction of waste to dispose; energy

saving; Less CO2 emission

Concrete

High

House construction & insulation; Low density

concretes; Coastal protection

Resources conservation; Improve in

concrete special characteristics

Ceramics

High

Building bricks; Pavement stoneware; Wall tiles

Reduction of waste to dispose;

Resources conservation

Decorative materials; Monolith blocks; Water

permeable blocks; Ceramic tiles; Pavement
bricks; Machine tool pieces

Low waste dumping; Natural

Resources salvation

Glass Ceramics

Medium

Conclusion
This work emphasizes on several
applications for waste fly ash and
shows relative advantages of the
same. It was found that
most of the environmental hindrance
regarding waste fly ash applications
are associated to the leaching
behaviour of the final products.
There is no broadly accepted use of
waste fly ash and the practicability
of most of the possibilities here
presented is still being researched.
Moreover, in most applications pretreatment is either required or
recommended.

References
1. H.A. VanderSloot, D. Hoede,
Leaching behaviour of amorphous,
mixed and crystalline vitrified MSWI
fly ash
2. C. Ferreira et al. / Journal of
Hazardous Materials B96 (2003)

Reliability for processing

depending upon physical
chemical characteristics of the fly
ash i.e. particle size and
chemical properties.

3. N. Bolt, A. Snel, Environmental

aspects of fly ash application
4. M.L. Elliott, C.C. Chapman, C.J.
Freeman, G. B. Mellinger (Eds.),
Environmental and waste
management issues in the ceramic
industry.

Technical performance is the

second factor considered.
Finally, the third factor
considered is environmental
impact.

Comparative Analysis

Fig 1. Uses of fly ash in different fields

5. C Ferreiraa, A Ribeiroc, L Ottosena

Possible applications for municipal
solid waste fly ash Volume 96,
Issues 23, 31 January 2003,