Disposal Options and The Environmental And Recovery Cost - Thesis Example

For the past few years, the world at large has experienced an explosion in the rates of industrialization and urbanization coupled with a myriad of issues. It is therefore not enough to only look at the better side of these two phenomena but also to consider their debilitating effects on the environment and the community. In Chapter one of the current thesis, candid background information on the research topic at hand has been presented by enumerating all the ill-effects of the two global processes.

Among the most outstanding ill-effects of the said processes is found resident in the increased production of industrial wastes. The Chapter has further pin-pointed the challenges associated with the safe management and disposal of these wastes, particularly fly ash. This, therefore, calls upon environmentalists and scientists to hasten their efforts in discovering cost-effective disposal options as illustrated by Behera (p28). Chapter two on the other hand presents an exhaustive review of the related literature on the generation of fly ash as a by-product of thermal power generation plants.

The Chapter offers an explanation as to how this solid by-product is produced and utilized based on its composition and properties. The Chapter also outlines the hazardous nature of fly ash to the environment and the society at large as well as its inherent disposal options. The chapter concentrates on the environmental impacts associated with the said disposal options in terms of recovery costs. The chapter goes further to look into any established re-use options of fly ash for both social and economic sustainability (Gandhi, p12).

The Chapter finally makes use of other relevant studies conducted elsewhere in the world on fly ash as a basis for the present exploration.An attempt was made in Chapter three to describe the various research methodologies used in the present paper to collect data on the pollution risks caused by the re-use activities and the disposal of fly ash into the environment (Kumar et al, p105). The methodologies employed in this thesis ranged from desk-based data collection to field-oriented data sources.

The desk-based sources of data were used to supplement and support the data collected from the field using appropriate tools as informed by Ayelet et al (p1035).

The data collected and analysed in Chapter three were subsequently presented and discussed in Chapter four of this thesis. On the basis of the results presented in Chapter four therefore, informed conclusions and recommendations were made and reported as in Chapter five of this thesis. Table of Contents Title page 1 Declaration 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Table of Contents 6 CHAPTER ONE 9 INTRODUCTION 9 Chapter Overview 9 Background To The Research 10 Aims And Objectives Of The Study 11 Chapter Summary 12 CHAPTER TWO 13 LITERATURE SEARCH 13 Introduction 13 Fly Ash Production 14 Composition And Properties Of Fly Ash 16 Fly Ash Utilisation 17 Fly Ash Disposal Options 20 Wet Stacking 21 Landfilling 22 Environmental Impacts And Recovery Costs 23 Environmental Impacts 23 Recovery Costs 25 Environmental Protection Agency Regulations 27 Chapter Summary 27 CHAPTER THREE 28 METHODOLOGIES 28 Introduction 28 Areas Of Study 28 Sources of Data 29 Information Gathering Techniques 30 Instrumentation 31 Reliability And Validity Of The Study 32 Data Collection 33 Data Analysis 33 Chapter Summary 34 CHAPTER FOUR 35 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 35 Introduction 35 Descriptive Data 35 Physical Properties of Fly Ash 35 Chemical Properties of Fly Ash 38 Engineering Properties of Fly Ash 43 Effects of Fly Ash on Plants, Animals and Soil 47 Effects of Fly Ash on Ground Water Quality 51 Chapter Summary 53 CHAPTER FIVE 54 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 54 Introduction 54 Concluding Remarks 54 Practical Implications Of The Study 56 Recommendations For Future Research 57 Chapter Summary 58 List of Tables 7 Table 2.

1: Production & Utilization of fly ashes in different countries 18 Table 4.1 (a): Typical composition of fly ash (% weight) 39 Table 4.1 (b): Approximate analysis of typical coal currently being consumed 40 Table 4.2: Chemical analysis of fly ash 42 Table 4.3: Compaction characteristics of Fly Ashes for present Study and Others 43 Table 4.4: Coefficient of Permeability for fly ashes in present study and others 45 Table 4.5: Flue gas desulphurisation by product composition 45 Table 4.6: Shear strength parameters of fly ashes using Direct shear box Test 47 Table 4.

7: Chemical analysis of Soil 48 Table 4.8: Chemical analysis of plant material growing on old fly ash pond 50 Table 4.9: Mineralogical composition of ground water 51 List of Figures 8 Fig. 1 Scanning Electron Microscope microphotograph of virgin fly ash 36 Fig. 2 Typical morphology of Fly Ash 37 WORKS CITED 59 APPENDICES 62 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW In the last few decades, the world at large has experienced an upsurge in industrialisation and urbanisation. These two phenomena have been blamed in one way or the other for the increasing adverse impacts on both the environment and social life as noted by Walker (p303).

Specifically, the said two phenomena have been associated with the ever rising emissions of industrial wastes into the environment. In the observations of Chalmin and Gaillochet (p76), large proportions of these wastes are found to originate from thermal power plants. Chandak (p97) further illustrates that thermal power generating plants produce a solid by-product known as fly ash in fairly large quantities. On the same note, Snellings et al (p217) indicate that the safe handling of these by-products has become a big challenge to everyone.

Moreover, Snellings et al (p220) claim that the said industrial wastes especially fly ash are exerting a lot of pressure on ‘infrastructural development’ efforts. In line with this realisation therefore, urgent stringent measures need to be put in place to address these concerns before they get out hand. The current study has been careful to highlight the various pollution hazards posed by poor handling and disposal of fly ash into the environment as well as its possible re-use in the construction industry and other sectors.

To mitigate these inherent risks, the present thesis has undertaken the following explorations.