Anyone Make Coal Ash Bricks or Other Recycled Ash Products?

AKShadow · Post by **AKShadow** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 9:38 pm

Just was reading about the "self-cementing" properties of coal ash when introduced to moisture...and on a side note also noticed the ash bucket I put outside to cool got some snow moisture in it and it is now hard as a rock. Anyone make bricks or anything like that out of their coal ash? I know it goes into all sorts of industrial cements, sealants, wallboard, etc... But just curious if anyone is doing it themselves just for the heck of it - making something useful out of waste

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 9:53 pm

Residential coal ash has little if any of those properties. Power plant ash does but that's not what you have.

AKShadow · Post by **AKShadow** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 11:06 pm

maybe a stupid question, but whats the difference besides volume and higher temperatures?

SMITTY · Post by **SMITTY** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 11:17 pm

I see that your in AK, so your coal up there may have ash similar to what power plants produce. I couldn't tell you for sure, as I've only burned a small amount of bit before ... and this stuff is completely different than what's mined out your way .... and I've never run a powerplant .... so just my best guess.

I use my ash all over the place for filling holes. Works well, but in weather like we've had here lately -- 60° followed by 6° the next night -- it still turns to soup. Once the moisture leaves, it hardens up pretty good. I'd have no problem tossing a couple handfuls of the ash into a batch of concrete. Just don't know for sure how the acids would react with the cement -- could possibly ruin it ... not sure.

Industrial fly ash is tossed in commercial batches all the time. Maybe there's less crap in the ash due to pollution control equipment? I couldn't tell ya ...

AKShadow · Post by **AKShadow** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 11:36 pm

yeah the coal here is sub-bit, its pretty low sulfur though for whatever thats worth, it sure turned hard when I left it out overnight

Short Bus · Post by **Short Bus** » Tue. Feb. 22, 2011 11:52 pm

I've put piles of ash from Healy Alaska coal, burned in a hand fired stove, out in the rain and it just turned to grease.
I now run a underfeed stoker and plan to spread the clinkers on my driveway in the spring, don't want to spread them now as the snow plow would not like it.

lincolnmania · Post by **lincolnmania** » Wed. Feb. 23, 2011 4:22 am

my shop was built in the early 60's out of cement block.........well theres coal in the block......quite a bit of it....shiny too

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Wed. Feb. 23, 2011 7:31 am

My gravel driveway got treated last season w/ all my ash from last season. It did get slurppy when it would rain so I kept on it with my field roller--she's in pretty good shape now. This yr. I've been dumping around the stone foundation of the house & come spring will trowel it up on the stone to fill whatever it will fill--we'll see how that works--I took a bunch of ash from last yr & dosed the walls of my ever leaking pond in the lower pasture--she seem'd to be holding water better twds the end of last summer--I guess gravity just sucks the ash where it needs to be. I'm not a scientist,so all I can tell you is it seems to help.

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Wed. Feb. 23, 2011 9:22 am

AKShadow wrote:maybe a stupid question, but whats the difference besides volume and higher temperatures?

Many power plants have fluid bed boilers, in effect molten grates; coal, other minerals and combustion are are blown in. The resultant high temperatures are close to those in a portland cement kiln. This results in fly ash that has properties similar to cement. Depending the the coal other minerals are added to control output air quality.