Norochcholai Coal Power Plant (NCPP) will earn record revenue in the excess of Rs. one billion by selling ‘Coal Fly Ash’ to leading cement manufactures.
Coal Fly Ash (CFA) is a by-product of coal industry and is produced in coal fired thermal power plant at Lakvijaya, more commonly known as Norochcholei.
Power Plant Manager Indrasiri Gallage said that they have been selling CFA for a long period but recently more value addition have been done to obtain a higher price.
“Last year we received around Rs. 600 million from Coal Fly Ash sales and we hope to increase this to over Rs. one billion in 2020. Cement manufactures use around 70% of Clinker as raw material to produce cement and Fly Ash is now been used to minimize the use of Clinker.
Cement manufactures spend several millions of rupees to import Clinker as this raw material is not found and extracted in Sri Lanka. “By selling Fly Ash to Cement manufactures the plant, while earning money, has also been able to save huge foreign exchange to the country by helping to reduce Clinker imports.”
Coal Fly Ash is also used as sand for manufacturing of concrete items.
He also said that another used waste material is Bottom Ash and this too now not considered as waste anymore.
“Bottom Ash from our plant are now used to make pavement blocks and we also hope to do more value addition for this and market them for a higher price soon.”
The lone coal power generation plant, was first accused of emitting harmful fumes and ash to the environment and was killing the green environment. “This is completely false as today we can see more trees in the area than before the project started. Also today there is more cultivation by farmers than before we started the project. We too have planted over 20 acres Kadalana trees,” he said.
In an effort that could ultimately help create new jobs and markets for coal, NETL researchers have developed a low cost, coal-derived cement additive that could lead to the construction of stronger and more durable roads and buildings.
Drawing upon their experience in converting coal to advanced materials and products, the NETL team has taken a new approach to synthesising graphene, a unique form of carbon only one atom thick. When added to cement, graphene imparts significant molecular level improvements to the material’s mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and overall durability.
“By using abundant coal feedstocks, we are synthesising graphene that is 50 - 100 times less expensive than the usual method of using graphite,” said Yuan Gao, Ph.D., who works on NETL’s functional materials team. “Graphene created from graphite is too expensive to be feasible for commercial-scale cement applications, but our lower cost, coal-derived graphene represents a critical first step for commercialisation.”
This research has attracted industry interest, and among other partnerships, the Lab launched a cooperative research and development agreement in 2018 with Ramaco Carbon, a vertically integrated coal technology company based in Wyoming that combines coal resources with advanced research and modern manufacturing techniques to develop new products from coal. NETL has also leveraged a strategic partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory through a memorandum of understanding in 2018 that is enabling research on new ways to use coal to create innovative high value products.
“Beyond just making stronger and more durable building materials, we will soon be investigating how the NETL additive affects the thermal and electrical properties of cement,” said Gao. “Thermally conductive concrete could have applications in radiant concrete floor or pavement systems, so that buildings could be heated or cooled, and walkways could be easily deiced. Electrically conductive cements could incorporate sensors to monitor building stress, environmental conditions or possible material failure.”
This work is one example of how NETL is expanding the US coal value chain and extracting the full potential of coal resources by manufacturing carbon products directly from coal instead of using petrochemical or biomass feedstocks.