Fly ash goes long-distance as NTPC begins to transport across the country

NTPC Ltd., India’s largest power producer and a PSU under Ministry of Power, has started to collaborate with cement manufacturers across the country to supply fly ash as part of its endeavour to achieve 100% utilisation of the by-product produced during power generation.

Oct 14, Delhi: The power producer is leveraging Indian Railways’ sprawling network to transport fly ash in an economical and environmentally friendly manner.

As per a statement issued by NTPC Ltd., NTPC Rihand is the first power plant in the State of Uttar Pradesh to send conditioned fly ash to cement manufacturers. The plant recently transported 3,834 Metric tonnes (MT) of conditioned fly ash in 59 BOXN wagons to Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.’s plant at Nagaon, Assam. Earlier, the rail rakes of conditioned fly ash were dispatched to ACC plants in Tikaria (U.P), Kymore (M.P) and Ropar (Punjab).

During the financial year 2019-20, almost 44.33 million tonnes of fly ash was utilised for various productive purposes. NTPC produces approximately 65 Million Tonnes of Ash annually, out of which 80% (approx. 52 Million MT) is Fly Ash. Presently, about 73% of total ash is being utilized for the production of cement and fly ash bricks, road embankment construction, mine filling, low-lying land development, and ash dyke raising.

With a total installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 Power stations comprising of 24 Coal, 7 combined cycle Gas/Liquid Fuel, 1 Hydro, 13 Renewables along with 25 Subsidiary & JV Power Stations. The group has over 20 GW of capacity under construction, including 5 GW of renewable energy projects.