Bijenefits and Opportunities for Coal Combustion Products

At the present time some 55 million tonnes of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) are produced each year in Europe (EU 15). These CCPs include combustion residues such as boiler slag, bottom ash and fly ash from different types of boilers as well as desulphurisation products such as spray dry absorption product and FGD gypsum. Out of this total production of 55 million tonnes of CCPs, the amount of coal ash produced is around 47 million tonnes while approximately 8 million tonnes are products obtained from flue gas desulphurisation processes. CCPs are mainly utilised in the building material industry, in civil engineering, in road construction, for construction work in underground coal mining as well as for recultivation and restoration purposes in open cast mining. The majority of CCPs are produced to meet the requirements of standards or other specifications with respect to utilisation in certain areas. The utilisation rate of CCPs differs across European countries depending upon local conditions in respect of issues such as legislation, taxes and climate. The establishment of markets for CCPs has evolved over several decades and has involved a considerable amount of product development and research. As new technologies have been introduced, such as Cleaner Coal Technology (CCT), the power industry has had to adapt by carrying out further development and research to establish both technically and environmentally acceptable utilisation options for CCPs. While much development work has been carried out at a national level, recent years have seen an increasing amount of co-operation between different countries. In Europe an organisation known as ECOBA, the European Association for Coal Combustion, ‥Products has facilitated this.