Ash from coal-fired power plants will become material for road construction

Photo by: i-Stockr / iStock

Volumes of ash and slag in Russia are growing at a rate of 22 million tonnes per year. Today they are produced by more than 170 coal-fired power plants across the country, and the area of landfills built to store their waste reaches 28 thousand hectares. The optimal way to free land from ash and slag waste storage is to involve them in recycling, and such opportunities currently exist.

Ash-and-slag mixtures are secondary mineral resources that can be used in making concrete for all kinds of construction, as well as in road construction. For example, ash-and-slag mixtures can be used in the construction of earth embankments or in the construction of reinforced bases of road pavements.

In accordance with GOST 25100-2020 ash-and-slag material is defined as a technogenic soil and in some cases it can replace natural soil in regions where there is a shortage or extraction is economically unprofitable.

The Ministry of Construction of Russia fully supports the use of ash and slag as a secondary resource.

“Today, in order for ash and slag use to be in demand, a comprehensive approach is needed — this includes creating a quality market product, ensuring an affordable logistics component, its pricing and attractiveness to consumers and, most importantly, stimulating and actively involving business in this process,” said Irek Faizullin, head of the Russian Ministry of Construction.

Businesses, in particular concrete and reinforced concrete companies in various regions, have also expressed their readiness to use ash and slag.

“According to our estimates, the annual potential for ash and slag utilisation is about 25 million tonnes. At the same time, the construction industry has the greatest potential — more than 14 million tonnes, of which 10.6 million tonnes is for cement production alone. About 5 million tonnes of ash and slag can be used to reclaim wetlands (backfill gullies, quarries and swamps), and 1.8 million tonnes for landfill reloading. Our goal is to reach a 50% coal ash utilisation rate by 2035,” said Pavel Snikkars, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation.

According to him, the work on ash-and-slag recycling has already started: the Russian government approved the Comprehensive Plan to increase ash-and-slag utilisation from power plants and boiler-houses, the Association for recycling development started its work, a white paper with examples of Russian and foreign experience of ash-and-slag use in road construction is ready.

It is worth mentioning that Rosavtodor is ready to provide pilot projects of road construction with ash-and-slag materials, as confirmed by Roman Novikov, the head of the Federal Road Agency.

Cover photo: Press Service of the Mayor and Government of Moscow