Shyamhari Chakra
India’s largest power generation company – National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) –has successfully developed infrastructure at its Rihand station in Uttar Pradesh for environment-friendly transportation and utilisation of fly-ash generated from the coal-based plant.
Rihand is one of the 24 coal-based plants that NTPC owns in addition to nine more joint venture stations in 11 states across India. Environment friendly transportation and utilisation of the massive production of fly-ash by these plants had posed huge challenges for NTPC, the reputed Maharatna Company under the Ministry of Power.
The newly developed system at Rihand project has enabled NTPC to transport fly ash in bulk to cement plants located at distance at a cheaper cost, the Company sourced stated.
The development is in line with NTPC’s commitment towards cent percent utilization of fly ash generated from its power plants. During the last financial year, nearly 74 per cent of the fly-ash, to the tune of 44.33 million tonnes, has been effectively utilised for various productive purposes, it added.
The first rake of 59 railway wagons carrying 3450 Metric Tonne of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power station for ACC Cement Manufacturing Plant at Tikaria in Uttar Pradesh located at a distance of 458 kilometres the sources stated.
The innovation has paved the path for efficient and safer transportation of fly ash from the power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantity, it added.
“The effort marks the beginning of a new era for the transportation of fly-ash from a remote location to a consumption centre, enabling power plants for upgrading the utilization of fly ash with the availability of additional material loading avenues for Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to the cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price”, a Ministry of Power statement pointed out.
Meanwhile, NTPC is exploring new avenues of fly ash management like fly ash based geo-polymer road, use of bottom ash as replacement of fine aggregate of sand in cement concrete apart from the plan to set up fly-ash classifier unit for export purposes, the statement added.
