Legal basis for creating a system of efficient coal combustion products handling

Abstract

Nowadays the increased attention in the Russian Federation has been paid to the coal ash handling issue. This is due to a number of reasons: the tightening of environmental regulation with the transition to the principles of the best available technologies, the greening of coal-fired power industry, the depletion of ash dumps of coal-fired TPPs, etc. Today, the average age of coal-fired TPPs is approximately 45-50 years, which significantly affects the technical and environmental performance of the TPP ash removal system. Conventional technical solutions using hydraulic ash removal systems for transporting coal ash slurry at TPPs are technically outdated, uneconomical and environmentally ineffective. Currently, about 1.5 billion tons of coal ash have been accumulated at the ash dumps, and these figures are growing every year. In this regard, the main problem of coal-fired TPPs is the elimination of the accumulated environmental damage, which can be solved only by implementing large-scale projects for the integrated processing of coal ash to obtain products in demand.

The article provides an overview and analysis of the main regulatory documents in the field of coal ash handling, including the features of regulatory technical acts, problems that reveal the gaps in the existing regulatory framework and the impossibility of its practical application; proposals for the development of the missing and correct normative and technology-based documents needed to form the technological basis for manufacturing the products from coal ash. The article presents the experience of the Russian company Ecomett-Luch LLC in the integrated processing of coal ash from Primorskaya State District Power Plant regarding the processing of coal ash products of the current output, as well as the wastes disposed off, obtaining various products demanded both in Russia and abroad. The article contains a diagram showing the dynamics of the investment process of developing waste-free production at coal-fired TPPs based on many years of the authors’ experience in the field of coal ash handling.