Leaching characteristics of fluoride from pond ash

Abstract

Now, more than 100 million tons of coal fly ash is produced annually in India from combustion of coal in power plants. It is expected that about 150 million tons of coal ash will be produced due to burning of coal in power plants by the year of 2015. This will require about 30,000 hectare of land for the disposal of ash. One of the biggest problems due to disposal of large quantities of coal ash is the possible leaching of different hazardous pollutants, including fluoride. A thorough investigating concerning leaching of fluoride from fly ash is much more indispensable to know the impingement of fluoride due to its leaching from fly ash to ground water as well as surface water. In this paper, short term and long term leaching studies will be carried out on pond ash, pond ash water of different thermal power plants: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), Rourkela; National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Kaniha; National Aluminium Corporation Limited (NALCO), Angul; IB Thermal Power Station (ITPS), Banharpali. The amount of fluoride released in different experiments will be evaluated. Environmental impact of pond ash and fluoride has been discussed.