Leaching studies of pulverised fuel ash from local thermal power plant

• Main Author: Maniyan, S/O Rama
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2010
• Subjects: QC Physics; TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/7775/1/Maniyan.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/7775/4/Maniyan%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/7775/

Major by-product of coal fired thermal power plants is Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA). The common method of disposal of ash from coal based power plant is wet disposal method. In wet disposal method PFA (collected from Electro Static Precipitator, ESP) and bottom ash (collected from bottom of the furnace) mixed with water, made slurry, and disposed in ash pond or lagoons. If the lagoons are not properly designed with a landfill liner or if there is spillage from the ash pond, the toxic heavy metal present in coal ash can result in the contamination of the subsurface soil and the ground water. Hence, this study concentrates about the leaching of PFA sample collected from Sejingkat Thermal Power Plant, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The leachability of PFA was investigated by using column test with aid of a fabricated designed model. The leaching behaviour is analysed with different liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S ratio) and pH values. The concentration of trace elements was determined with the aid of Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) analysis. There are six elements were found, namely Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn). It was found that the concentration of trace elements is increased with increases in acidity and decreases in L/S ratio. The trace elements concentrations present in PFA were compared with the Drinking Water Quality Standard by The Ministry of Health Malaysia. The trace elements such as Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb exceeded the standards and are hazardous to the environment.