FOCUSSED EFFORTS

Appreciating the overall concern for environmental and management issues pertaining to fly ash, which otherwise is a very useful by-product of thermal power plants, the Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India identified “Safe Disposal and Gainful Utilisation of Fly Ash” as a thrust area and commissioned a Techno-Market Survey “Technologies for Disposal of Thermal Power Station Fly Ash”. The study brought to the fore that significant work has already been done by indigenous R&D laboratories and other agencies for disposal and gainful utilisation of fly ash as described in previous paras. A number of technologies have been developed and demonstrated successfully at laboratory/pilot plant levels. The overall complexity of technology transfer, infrastructure support, inter-institutional linkages, development of market, orientation of Government policies to promote and support fly ash utilisation, required sharply focused efforts to promote fly ash utilisation. Further, no single utilisation holds the potential to provide a solution to this mammoth task of safe disposal and gainful utilisation of FA. A judicious mix of a number of applications (considering impact timeframe, investment requirement, technical and infrastructure inputs, requirements by fly ash utilisation potential and expected returns, etc.) was required to be evolved. A number of disposal and utilisation technologies / applications were required to  be simultaneously demonstrated to increase the percentage utilisation and environmentally-safe disposal of fly ash. Keeping this objective in view, Government of India decided to launch Mission Mode Project in the form of Fly Ash Mission (FAM), as a joint activity of Department of  Science  & Technology (DST), Ministry of Power (MoP) and Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) during 1994. Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) was given the responsibility of implementing the Mission Mode project under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology ( the Nodal Agency). The objective of the Mission was to undertake Technology Demonstration Project towards confidence building in fly ash utilisation technologies.

MISSION IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation strategy of Fly Ash Mission was planned in such a way so as to address the select focused issues in comprehensive mode and with involvement of maximum number of stake holder agencies and individuals in each project, followed by awareness creation among other user agencies. The Mission’s efforts may broadly be categorised in three groups: 

i. Technology development and demonstration 

ii. Facilitation and hand holding for the multiplier effects 

iii. Policy measures for sustainable use.

Technology Development and Demonstration 

After due deliberations and careful considerations ten thrust areas were identified for focused efforts through Technology Demonstration Projects. The thrust areas of fly ash utilization are Roads & Embankments, Building components, Hydraulic  Structures, Agriculture Related Studies & Applications and Underground Minefills. Further for safe management of unutilized fly ashes, projects were undertaken in the areas of Ash Ponds &  Dams and Reclamation of Ash Ponds for Human Settlement. Characterisation of fly ash, Handling & Transportation of fly ash and Research & Development areas were also thrusted upon for facilitation of further work/utilization. The technologies pertaining to these areas were identified for further development and Technology Demonstration Projects were undertaken in different parts of the country towards confidence building in all the thrust areas.