by Billy Lothridge

Created on: December 10, 2009   Last Updated: December 31, 2009

Coal power is a large part of the United States Infrastructure powering homes, and business alike. With the popularity of green energy the demand for coal power has dropped some ,but not to the point coal power production has stopped. Coal power has stood the long test of time with passing through the nuclear age as a producer of energy. Coal although has recently seen some backlash. Burning coal is a major producer of green house gasses, and a very dangerous by product known as fly ash.

 Fly ash is one of the many byproducts of burnt coal, and contents of the fly ash vary by the type of coal that is burnt. Mainly fly ash consist of silicate particles ,and calcium compounds from the layers of rock that the coal was mined from. Newer processing of coal can make the coal cleaner to burn, But it does not remove all these toxic compounds. Sulfur is also a dangerous chemical that can contribute to acid rain. Coal contains a large amount of sulfur which a majority of it can be removed from smoke using filters, and scrubber technologies. While fly ash is captured through filtering some still is released into the atmosphere ,and what fly ash is collected storage has become a major issue.
    
Storage of fly ash is done in two ways wet storage ,and dry storage. Dry storage has it's own risks involved such as loose ash being blown by the wind. Air pollution from dry storage is a problem when it is blown into populated areas which can cause respiratory illness in the people that inhale the fly ash.. Wet Storage is where the fly ash is mixed in with water ,and placed in retention ponds. This sludge like mixture prevents fly ash contamination by wind. Although it also has it's own risks. In one case is in which a large contamination occurred in Kingston, Tennessee when an earthen dam that held the retention pond failed ,and dumped fly ash into a nearby river ,and damaged homes of nearby residents. This accident also kill countless fish, and wildlife in the area where there food ,and water sources were contaminated with many dangerous toxins.  With risks such as this wet storage is still used as the retention ponds are built to protect ground water by there construction, But in the case of the Kingston Incident engineers did not properly asses the construction of the failed dam. According to TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) ,A major power producer for Tennessee. The dam was built above a site that was previously used for wet storage,and recent rains in the area caused a layer of older strata of the previous pond to sludge up causing the dam to fail.

With so much fly ash being produced by coal plants reuse of the fly ash is currently at 42% of what is produced according to the EPA. Fly ash is used in portland cement ,and in the manufacturing of dry wall board. These products use refined fly ash which has been cleaned of contaminents ,and a company has been developing a brick that contains fly ash capable of insulating better than traditional brick also with a better strength than that of traditional bricks.This is a great advancement in attempting to get rid of this hazardous material

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