RAICHUR: If one lines up the bricks made at the Centre for Ash Utilisation Technology and Environment Conservation (CASHUTEC), situated adjacent to the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) over the last year, it would cover a distance of over 1,000 kilometres— more than the distance from Bangalore to Mumbai.
Considering the bricks are made from fly ash (a residue of coal used at the RTPS) , which was earlier treated as waste that cause environmental problems, officials are quite happy about the achievement.
During the last year, CASHUTEC produced 47.2 lakh fly ash bricks for the Gulbarga Housing Board which proved to be cheaper and stronger than the local variants and also helped in effective utilisation of fly ash. The centre also saved about 20 per cent cost for the Gulbarga Housing Board.
According to Srinivas Rao Kularni, Executive Officer, CASHUTEC, the local bricks could withstand a pressure of about 23-25 Kilograms/ Centimeter square. “The bricks we made could withstand a pressure of about 45 kg/cm2,” he said.
The CASHUTEC has been doing brisk business of converting waste into wealth.
Fly ash is now in demand thanks to its utility in cement and construction material manufacturing.
RTPS, one of Karnataka’s major power plants, owned by Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd., consists of seven units, each capable of generating 210 MW of power and generating an average 6500 tonnes of fly ash every day, the disposal of which was a major headache until recently.
The conventional method of disposal had created environmental issues and hence thermal power plants were fiercely opposed by locals.
Earlier, the fly ash was converted into wet slurry and dumped into specially built ashponds around the thermal plants. This however gave rise to long-lasting effects on the environment.