Physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of fly ash and bottom ash: article

The unused fly ash and bottom ash is one of the major problems of all combustion power plants in Malaysia and it brings significant problems to the environment such as the air pollution and groundwater contamination. Having said that, both fly ash and bottom ash have shown suitability in many industrial applications such as cement concrete and agriculture. There is a potential for fly ash and bottom ash to be used as a substitute material in a production. Objectives of this study are to investigate the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of fly ash and bottom ash taken from the Stesen Janakuasa Elektrik Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Kapar, Selangor. Differences in composition is what makes these two ashes differ from each other. Fly ash and bottom ash consist mostly of silicon dioxide. 50% of the diameter particles in the fly ash is between 26.227 μm to 107.731 μm while the other 50% is smaller than 26.227 μm. Meanwhile for bottom ash size distribution analysis, the result shown that 40% is between 18.078 μm to 72.799 μm and remaining 50% of it has diameter between 72.799 μm to 161.071 μm. Mineralogical analysis shows fly ash contains quartz which consist of silicon dioxide, SiO2. Second mineral detected is Hanjiangite. Another mineral that can be detected is aluminum niobium oxide nitride. In bottom ash analysis, there is a little amount of Berylium Cobalt detected. The presence of Niobium Tantalum Titanium Carbide can be seen. Unburned carbon has been detected in bottom ash during the research.