At the World of Coal Ash 2017 Conference in the United States, CEO Craig Heidrich presented the following report to a plenary of +1,100. View the World Wide Coal Combustion Products Network PDF below.

Abstract

Whenever coal is burnt, coal combustion products are produced by the thermal transformation of the mineral matter present into amorphous inorganic oxides. Large-scale use of coal in power generation gives rise to significant quantities of coal combustion products from which important ‘hard won’ end use markets have been established.

Existing and proposed end use markets for coal combustion products (CCPs) are not only of critical importance to the economics of power generation, but also to the established supply chain participants which have invested, researched, developed and promoted CCPs into various end use markets, for example the construction sector use large quantities. Globally, the continued growth in utilization of CCPs is dependent on many factors beyond the quality and characteristics. Appropriate legislation and regulation coupled with the development of international classification systems, standards and codes of practice are only a few of the important enablers for easing the way towards increasing utilization and securing the ‘legal certainly’ for continued investment.

The paper updates the 2013 report (Heidrich et al 2013) and discusses changes in the global operating environment for CCPs, the growing role of coal in energy production, changing environmental paradigms for emerging industrialized economies such as India and China. The paper updates global CCP production and utilization including volume and value of international trade. An overview of country-specific classification systems for CCPs will be discussed, moreover the important and emerging role of legislation in creating legal certainty for the ongoing investment in CCPs management and market development. 

The paper has been jointly written by members of the World Wide Coal Combustion Products Network and is the result of an ongoing, international collaboration between respective country industry associations, being non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), to inform the public, industry and governmental entities about the beneficial environmental, technical and commercial uses of CCPs. 

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