Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India.
Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, 160012, India.
Environ Monit Assess. 2022 Oct 26;195(1):33. doi: 10.1007/s10661-022-10473-2.
Coal-powered thermal plants are the primary source of energy production around the globe. More than half (56.89%) of the Indian power plants use coal for power production. Coal burning in power plants results in coal combustion residuals, which contain coal fly ash (CFA) that is recognized as principle by-product. CFA is difficult to characterize due to its broad compositional variation. Hence, the present article summarizes the various physical, chemical, mineralogical, and petrological characterizations of CFA to its use in different applications. Indian coal thermal power plants are found to release two types of CFA: F (fine) and C (coarse). CFA particles are identified as unburned carbon particles with a large fraction of silica oxides, alumina oxides, and iron oxides with a small fraction of calcium oxide (CaO). Morphologically, CFA particles are spherical, with large carbon molecules and a smooth texture surface. In terms of mineralogy; quartz, mullite, magnetite, and hematite are the dominant mineral phases of CFA and tend to be non-plastic, with permeability levels ranging from 8 × 10 to 1.87 × 10 cms. Petrographically, CFA is enriched in inertinite and liptinites as well as collotelinite, collodetrinite, and vitrodetrinite particles. Moreover, CFA is found to be composed of various organic and inorganic particles. By virtue of multiple characterizations, it has been utilized in several applications for decades, which is still quite limited. Therefore, current study aim to provide helpful insights into the potential use of CFA-derived products in different ways to increase sustainability.
燃煤热电厂是全球能源生产的主要来源。印度超过一半（56.89%）的发电厂使用煤炭发电。发电厂燃烧煤炭会产生煤灰（CFA），这是一种公认的主要副产品。由于其组成变化广泛，CFA 很难进行特征描述。因此，本文总结了 CFA 的各种物理、化学、矿物学和岩相学特征及其在不同应用中的用途。印度的燃煤热电厂发现会释放两种类型的 CFA：F（细）和 C（粗）。CFA 颗粒被鉴定为未燃烧的碳颗粒，其中含有大量的二氧化硅氧化物、氧化铝氧化物和氧化铁，以及少量的氧化钙（CaO）。从形态上看，CFA 颗粒呈球形，含有大量的碳分子和光滑的纹理表面。从矿物学角度来看，石英、莫来石、磁铁矿和赤铁矿是 CFA 的主要矿物相，往往是非塑性的，渗透率范围从 8×10 到 1.87×10 cms。岩相学上，CFA 富含惰性组和脂组，以及胶磷矿、胶磷泥和玻璃质磷泥颗粒。此外，CFA 还被发现由各种有机和无机颗粒组成。通过多种特征描述，CFA 已在几十年的时间里被应用于多个领域，但应用仍然相当有限。因此，本研究旨在为 CFA 衍生产品在不同领域的潜在用途提供有价值的见解，以提高可持续性。
