NTPC, a central PSU under the Ministry of Power and power generation company, has developed infrastructure at Rihand plant in Uttar Pradesh to transport fly ash in bulk to cement plants, located at distance, at a cheaper cost.
The development is in line with NTPC’s commitment towards 100 percent utilisation of fly ash from power plants.
The first rake of 59 BOXN type of railway wagons carrying 3,450 tonne of fly ash was flagged off from NTPC’s Rihand Super Thermal Power Station for ACC Cement manufacturing plant at Tikari in Uttar Pradesh located at a distance of 458 km.
To transfer the first tranche, officials from NTPC Rihand approached the East Central Railway along with cement producers to commence the supply of fly ash in BOXN wagons covered with tarpaulin.
The innovation will pave the way for efficient and safer transportation of fly ash from the power plants to cement production units located at a distance in larger quantity.
The effort marks the beginning of a new era for transportation of fly ash from a remote location to a consumption centre, enabling power plants for upgrading the utilisation of fly ash with availability of additional material loading avenues for the Indian Railways and accessibility of fly ash to cement plants in an environment-friendly manner at a competitive price.
During FY20, almost 44.33 million tonne of fly ash was utilised for various productive purposes, being 73.31 percent of the ash generated.
Moreover, the company is looking at new avenues of fly ash management like fly ash-based geo-polymer road, use of bottom ash as replacement of fine aggregate (sand) in cement concrete, etc. Also, NTPC has plans to set up fly ash classifier unit for export purposes.
With a total installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 power stations comprising 24 coal, seven combined cycle gas/liquid fuel, one hydro, 13 renewables along with 25 subsidiary and joint venture power stations.
The Group has over 20 GW capacity under construction, including five GW renewable energy projects.
