Bloomberg BNA quotes me on new fly ash rules for coal based power sector notified (draft) by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India
India Recommends New Fly Ash Rules From Power Plants
By Madur Singh, July 13, 2015
India's environment ministry has proposed stricter rules for utilization of fly ash produced by coal- and lignite-based power plants in building activities and construction material.
Fly ash, also known as pulverized fuel ash, is one of the byproducts of coal combustion and is composed of the fine particles that escape the boiler with the flue gases. It is generally captured by precipitators or filters before the flue gases reach the chimneys and is used to make concrete, bricks, cement clinkers, road sub-base, and similar building and construction material.
Currently, excavation and using topsoil in the manufacture of bricks and other building material and other construction activities is banned within a 100 kilometer radius of coal- and lignite-based power plants to encourage those in the building and construction material sectors to use available fly ash from the plants themselves—rather than fallout in the area around the power plants.
The proposed rules seek to extend this to a 500-kilometer radius.
Power plants would have to declare the amount and type of fly ash available. And for those willing to take a power plant's fly ash, the plant would pay for transportation within a 100-kilometer radius and pay part of the transport costs up to 500 kilometers.
The power plant also would pay for transportation costs if the fly ash was being used of a public construction project.
Sanjeev K. Kanchan, deputy program manager at New Delhi-based Centre for Science & Environment, told Bloomberg BNA, July 9 that the government must focus on implementation by providing necessary infrastructure and making it mandatory for state and private builders and constructors to use fly ash.
“India's fly ash utilization is 60 percent, and about 1 billion tons are dumped by now,” Kanchan said.
The draft was issued in March but posted on the ministry's website in early July.
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