India produces about 70 million tons of coal ash per year from burning about 200 million tons of coal per year for electric power generation. Coal-ash management poses a serious environmental problem for India and requires a mission-mode approach. Considerable research and development work have been undertaken across the country towards confidence building and developing suitable technologies for disposal and utilization of fly ash in construction industries. At present about 10% ash is utilized in ash dyke construction and land filling (a technology developed and pioneered at IIT Kanpur) and only about 3% of ash is utilized in other construction industries. This is very much in contrast with 80% or more fly ash used in developed countries for the manufacture of bricks, cellular concrete blocks, road construction, land fill application, ceramics, agriculture, insulating bricks, recovery of metals and cenospheres and dam constructions. Currently, about one acre per MW of land is needed for ash disposal.

Several pilot projects were undertaken in recent years to demonstrate the bulk utilization of fly ash specifically for Indian conditions. Also, it has been successfully demonstrated that fly ash can be utilized in major construction projects such as dams, ash dyke, landfills, roads and pavements, soil stabilization and for other purposes such as brick manufacture, cement industry, tiles, and paint industry. Realizing the large scale generation of flyash and its very low utilization, the Government of India set up the Flyash Mission under the Department of Science & Technology at New Delhi for coordinating all such efforts. A law has also been enacted in 1999 projecting 100 per cent utilization of flyash within a stipulated period and making it mandatory to use flyash for the purpose of road construction, bricks etc. within a radius of 50 km from coal based thermal power plants. In spite of an all-out effort, the flyash utilization in the country is still very low. There are several factors responsible for this namely, lack of awareness and confidence, higher production cost, non availability of dry ash, and most important of all, easy availability of land with top soil at cheap rates. This film highlights some of the successful projects using flyash across the country and is a humble attempt towards the confidence building exercise for flyash utilization.

Acknowledgements:

Prof. D.V. Singh, Chairman, Flyash Mission, TIFAC, New Delhi.
Prof. V.S. Raju, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai (formerly Director, IIT Delhi)
Dr. Vimal Kumar, Director, Flyash Mission, TIFAC, New Delhi.
Mr. B.P. Mandloi, Member, MPEB, Korba
Er. R. Bose, NTPC, GM, Korba
Er. K. Kalidasan, AGM, NTPC, Korba.
Er. A.K. Misra, Addl. Chief Engineer, MPEB, Korba.
Dr. S. Chandra, CRRI, New Delhi.
Prof. S.N. Singh, IIT Delhi
Er. R.D. Gupta, Badarpur TPS, Badarpur.

Additional Resources on Flyash produced by IIT Kanpur

1. FLYASH DISPOSAL AND DEPOSITION: BEYOND 2000 A.D
U. Dayal, R. Sinha, & V. Kumar (Editors) (1999)
Proceedings of the National Conference on "Flyash Disposal and Deposition: Beyond 2000 A.D", 05-06 Feb. 1999.
Available from:
Narosa Publishing House, 6 community Center, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110017.

2. Manual on "DESIGN, DEMONSTRATION AND MONITORING OF ASH DYKES"
U. Dayal & R. Sinha (2000)
Available from:
Flyash Mission, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi.

3. Manual on "UTILIZATION OF PULVERISED COAL ASH AS STRUCTURAL FILL"
U. Dayal & R. Sinha (2000)
Available from:
Flyash Mission, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi

4. GEOENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN PRACTICES FOR FLYASH DISPOSAL AND UTILIZATION
U. Dayal & R. Sinha (2002, in press)
Available from:
Allied Publishers (P) Ltd., 1/13-14, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi - 110002