The National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) Rihanad and other three units in the east of UP Region have joined the race of producing building materials with fly ash with a proper branding initiative. The fly ash-based building material will not only be durable but also check in minimising pollution levels.
Sanjeev Kumar said that this initiative will hit multiple targets including saving natural resources and minimising risk of pollution. “We are introducing ash-based aggregator, ash-bricks with Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) mark, ash, sand and tiles in the brand name of Vikalp, said Kumar adding, “The first dealer of these products has been appointed in Bilaspur of Chattisgarh and now the same process would be initiated in East UP region.”
Regarding ash of thermal power plant, Kumar said, “On an average 40,000 tons of coal is consumed at Rihand plant per day. It produces 13,000 tonnes of ash per day. Of it, 20% is heavy (bottom) ash and 80% is light ash. If the quantity of ash produced in all thermal plants is added its volume goes very high. The ash of thermal plants is mainly used for mine fills. The National Highway Authority of India is also a major consumer as it uses ash for landfill in ramps and approach roads of the flyovers. Using ash bricks in government and NTPC buildings had been made a must while cement factories also utilize a huge quantity of ash, he said, adding, but all these measures are insufficient for complete disposal of ash produced from the thermal plants.”
NTPC’s GM (ash management corporate) Sanjeev Kumar Saxena said, “In India 300 bn bricks are used per year. If even 50% of it is replaced by ash, bricks, major soil of fertile land would be saved. Efforts were made to promote ash bricks through private players, but they did not pay attention to the quanlity of products which brought a bad name for ash bricks.” Thus we carried out research to produce bricks, blocks, tiles, aggregators and ash sand. After ensuring production of qualitative construction material, we decided to go for its branding,” said Saxena adding that these products will not only increase utilisation of ash but also end the problem of pollution that includes groundwater contamination saving fertile soil and also hills being crushed for aggregators.
Kumar said that apart from Rihand, Vindhya Shaktinagar and Meja all other NTPC units are going to run their units for these products. The officials also highlighted the qualities of products like ash bricks and aggregators by comparing it with conventional red bricks and stone aggregators.
