The growing demand for electricity resulted in the construction of many coal fired power plants. The increment of the consumption of coal by power plants lead up to production of coal ash. Coal ash contains a range of toxic elements that may have negative effects to human and environmental health. Fly ash (FA) and bottom ash (BA) are the solid residues and mostly arise from coal combustion that being disposed in large quantities every year. The focus of the study is to determine the leachability of Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) incorporated with FA and BA by using Static Leachate Test (SLT) method. In this study, FA and BA were collected from Kapar Energy Ventures Coal Power Plant in Selangor. The characteristics of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), FA and BA were determined by using X-Ray Fluorescent (XRF) technique. The different percentages of FA (replace cement) and BA (replace sand) which is 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% were incorporated respectively into SCC. Ten reactors were set up for the leachability test for each solid specimen by using SLT method. The concentrations of leachate samples were analyzed for selected heavy metals content by using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) method. After 40 days conducting the test, the concentrations of selected heavy metals (As, Mn, Cu, Cr, Zn, Ni, Fe and Pb) in the synthetic acid rain leachates from the SCC specimens were significantly lower than the limit specified by the USEPA and EPAV. Therefore, incorporating of FA and BA up to 30% into SCC is potentially feasible.
Thermodynamic Study of the Synthesis of Zeolites from Coal Ash and Its Use as Sorbents for Heavy Metals