The Hindu Business Line : NTPC sells fly ash to DMRC, IOC, cement majors

Waste to wealth
Plans improved methods like dry ash extraction system
May set up cement clinker grinding/blending unit
Use of ash in mine fills on the anvil

New Delhi , Sept 20

Promoting fly ash from a difficult-to-dispose waste product into a commercial success, NTPC now counts Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), IOC, construction firms DLF and Unitech, and cement manufacturers including ACC, Grasim, Lafarge and L&T among its major customers for ash.

The company is promoting use of fly ash in cement concrete, mortar and reinforcing material as an ingredient for mine fills and even for the improvement of soil condition for agriculture and is targeting 100 per cent utilisation of ash produced at its plants over the next few years.

"The company's focus since 1991 was on converting ash from a pollutant into a useful material that can find application in a number of areas," an NTPC official said.

"With demand from our customers now increasing, the company is going in for improved methods like dry ash extraction system for supplying large volumes of ash. Efforts are aimed at utilising 100 per cent of ash procured at our plants."

Cement manufacturers such as Grasim Cement, Lafarge India, L&T Cement, Jaypee Cement and ACC and asbestos-cement product manufacturers such as Hyderabad Industries, UP Asbestos, Utkal Asbestos and Assam Asbestos Ltd are already using substantial quantity of fly ash from NTPC power stations.

While agreements have been signed with several cement manufacturers to lift dry fly ash from stations, an agreement has been signed for setting up of cement clinker grinding-cum-blending unit at its Tanda station to utilise total ash production at the station, officials said.

Firms such as DLF, Unitech and DMRC are using dry fly ash from Dadri Power station for use in concrete.

NTPC has also been marketing the use of ash as a landfill material and major users include DMRC and IOC.

Over 15 lakh tonnes of ash was utilised by DMRC at its depot work in Delhi, while three lakh tonnes from Badarpur was utilised in structural fill of IOC's bottling plant site in Delhi.

About 20 lakh tonnes of ash from NTPC's Badarpur has been utilised by IRCON in embankment construction of Noida-Greater Noida Express Highway - the largest use of ash in any single project in the country so far - while several flyover projects in the Capital have used ash from NTPC's Badarpur and Dadri stations as reinforced fill material.

Use of ash in mine fills is on the anvil and NTPC, in association with USAID, is conducting a feasibility study for mine back filling with ash.

The project, following commissioning, will take ash from NTPC's Singrauli station to abandoned mine and the move could pave the way for large-scale ash utilisation in mine filling applications, officials said.

Ash is also being tested for use in improvement of soil condition for agriculture and the company has successfully carried out studies at Rihand, Farakka and Ramagundam stations for use of ash in agriculture, which have demonstrated increase in yield with use of ash, they added.

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