The U.S. Power Industry’s Activities to Expand Coal Ash Utilization in Face of lower Ash Quality

This paper describes a five-year Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) program directed toward increasing ash utilization in the cement and concrete market within the United States, in the face of the impacts on ash quality due to more aggressive NOx controls. EPRI is undertaking this program to provide the technical basis for protecting the bulk sale of coal ash in high-volume applications in cement and concrete and other high volume civil engineering applications. In addition to higher carbon levels in ash from NOx control systems, problems associated with ammoniated ash have become a major concern for coal-fired facilities in recent years as a result of the increased use of ammonia-based environmental control technologies. Many coal-fired power producers have become concerned that post-combustion NOx controls could lead to fly ash containing high levels of ammonia. Therefore, EPRI conducted a research program designed to assist power producers to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of high carbon and ammoniated ash.