Posted on 03/24/2017 7:47:36 AM PDT by Rio
Shipping containers full of coal ash from China, Poland and India have come into the U.S. through the Port of Virginia as foreign companies find a market for the same industrial waste that America's utilities are struggling to dispose of.
(Excerpt) Read more at chem.info ...
Excerpted due to AP origin.
Why are we? The stuff is dangerous and has led to utilities not using coal.
IIRC, fly ash is used in some formulations of cement, and is used to make cinder block.
Why? Same reason we are burning food in our gas tanks due to agricultural subsidies. Our environmental policies are broken because common sense policy is fought at every turn in the courts. The environmental lawsuit industry is a self-perpetuating cycle of lawyers getting paid, workers getting screwed, and taxpayers picking up the bills.
Way less dangerous that a lot of other things on our planet. Fly ash has a use in concrete and concrete products. Bottom/economizer ash has uses as a road base. Coal burning utilities don't shut down because of ash. They shut down due to over regulation.
If we created enough American coal ash for our construction demands, we wouldn’t have to import it.
Knowing the ChiComs there is no telling what kind a nasty extras are being added to that ash.
China, etc., must be selling this stuff at a negative netback...
Coal ash—once considered a waste product—has found its niche as an ingredient for the manufacture of cement and concrete. I’m surprised China exports it given their own massive demand for concrete in that country.
Used to work for a company that used coal. Too much ash for the concrete industry. We landfilled it.
Just doing the jobs that US made coal ash won’t do?
As we live in “coal country” we keep up with these kinds of issues. We also have lots of “back roads” that have been impossible to keep passable. About 5 years ago they laid a road that I have traveled for years. It was an experimental road using coal ash mixed with whatever else they used. That road has not had the first crack, while roads in the same area are pot holed so awful you can hardly navigate them. So, I pray that they use the coal ash mixture to pave the rest of them. Coal ash also makes a good foundation for roads and buildings.
“These materials can be had for several dollars a ton if trucked directly from a utility to a factory or job site. They’re more expensive to obtain in a useful form after decades underground or underwater. That makes foreign imports economically viable.”
Actually fly ash is great stuff. I’m experimenting with it now.
Increases ultimate concrete strength
Increases concrete durability
Is more economical than portland cement
Reduces the heat of hydration (first used in mass concrete construction in the building of Hungry Horse Dam, Montana,1948)
Reduces risk of alkali-silica reaction (ASR)
Increases resistance to sulfate attack
Reduces concrete bleeding (water loss at the surface after placement)
Reduces concrete shrinkage during curing
Reduces the amount of water required in mixtures
Reduces permeability (increases concrete’s resistance to water penetration)
Improves workability (microscopic, spherical-shaped particles create a more flowable, easier-to-finish concrete)
Lightens the color of concrete
Fulfills LEED points (LEED MR 4.1, Reclaimed Materials/Recycled Content) and is routinely specified on many green projects
Meets the guidelines of many building codes, design guidelines and standards that encourage fly ash recycling in concrete.
Meets ASTM standards and test methods (ASTM C618-08, C1240 and C 311-07)(viii)
Is environmentally beneficial (ix).
Sounds like good stuff to make a huge, long wall out of.
I remember a cat food product that claimed to be “low ash”. They went bankrupt, because apparently people don’t want ANY ash in their cat food.
Coal ash has thorium in it which can be used to create cheap and efficient thorium salt reactors.
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As we live in “coal country” we keep up with these kinds of issues. We also have lots of “back roads” that have been impossible to keep passable. About 5 years ago they laid a road that I have traveled for years. It was an experimental road using coal ash mixed with whatever else they used. That road has not had the first crack, while roads in the same area are pot holed so awful you can hardly navigate them. So, I pray that they use the coal ash mixture to pave the rest of them. Coal ash also makes a good foundation for roads and buildings.
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What!? Hold on now. How do you think the govt will get to line their pockets w/ taxpayer $$ if the roads lasted and didn’t need the re-paving/repairs?!
Plus, think of the UNION! All those guys doing nothing at a snails-pace. What would they do now? /s...semi
Years ago our local town decided to repave all the streets using coal ash as a base. It worked great until some old biddy got a summer cold and blamed it on the ash.
The project was shut down and there are still unpaved streets around here because of HER.
My driveway has bottom ash in it, and I used lots of it to fill holes where there used to be an orchard.
I often used cement mixed with only bottom ash for various light concrete projects. After almost thirty five years some are still holding up.
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