http://wvwri.nrcce.wvu.edu/
We've made previous report of the work of the Coal Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium, whose name was later changed to just "Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium" - in acknowledgement, we suppose, of the social and political impropriety of using "dirty" four-letter words.
An example of that reportage would include:
West Virginia Coal Association | The Coal Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium | Research & Development; "The Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium", an operational group of entities housed and managed from within the "West Virginia Water Research Institute".
We've also reported on the Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science, which actually, believe it or not, started out life as the much less politically correct "Consortium for Fossil Fuel Liquefaction Science", and which, as seen, for one example, in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | WVU & CFFS Support USDOD Coal Liquefaction | Research & Development; concerning: "Military Fuels Research Program of the Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science;
Quarterly report for the period June 26, 2010 to September 25, 2010; U.S. ARMY TACOM Contract No. W56HZV-07-C-0721; Abstract: The Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science (CFFS), a five-university research consortium, is conducting a basic research program focused on development of innovative and economical technology for producing military fuels from domestic resources, particularly our most abundant resource, coal";
actively supported development of technologies for the conversion of Coal into liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
However, we're not certain that either organization is still active or in existence.
The Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium links on the West Virginia Water Research Institute web site, where the organization's web presence has been strangely housed, don't seem to display information about any real activity beyond the year 2006, even though plans for 2010 were published. See:
Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium - West Virginia Water Research Institute.
And, links which appear in response to web searches for the Consortium for Fossil Fuel Science, the "CFFS", supposedly headquartered at the University of Kentucky, take you, or at least us, nowhere. Try:
Make no mistake, there are politically powerful forces organized behind the scenes against Coal.
And, even the President of the United States might not be immune to them. Consider:
As we've previously reported, and as can be learned via:
Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007 (2007; 110th Congress S. 155) - GovTrack.us;
while still a United States Senator from Illinois, now-President Obama stood with West Virginia's US Senator Robert Byrd as a cosponsor of legislation that would, if it had not been immediately buried, killed for all practical purposes, "in committee", have spurred the commercialization of technology in the United States of America to convert our abundant Coal into Gasoline, Diesel, and other hydrocarbon fuels, just as they are now starting to do in China, just as they have been doing for more than half a century in South Africa.
But, now, as President of the United States, he seems, as even acknowledged in other nations, as the following opinion piece from the Canada Free Press attests:
Obama to Coal Miners: “McDonalds is Hiring!”;
to have changed his tune a little bit.
We'll return, in a way, to that immediately-above topic, following excerpts from the real - and, given the immediately above, somewhat ironic - subject of our dispatch herein: report of research performed, or sponsored, by the now seemingly-defunct (Coal) Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium, which research confirms information we've previously reported, for just two examples, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Coal Ash Makes Better Bricks | Research & Development; concerning:
"US Patent Application 20120031306 - Bricks and Method of Forming Bricks with High Coal Ash Content; 2012; (Presumed Assignee of Rights: Belden Brick Company, OH)"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Coal Fly Ash Bricks are Greener and Stronger | Research & Development; concerning: "'Follow the Green Brick Road?'; Engineering News; US National Science Foundation; Researchers have found that bricks made from fly ash--fine ash particles captured as waste by coal-fired power plants--may be even safer than predicted. Instead of leaching minute amounts of mercury as some researchers had predicted, the bricks apparently do the reverse, pulling minute amounts of the toxic metal out of ambient air. ... Fly ash bricks (can) counter the environmental impact from the manufacture of standard bricks"; i.e.:
Coal Ash can be consumed and utilized, as a replacement for at least some of the standard raw materials, which would otherwise have to be quarried or mined, in the making of fired bricks that meet, and in some cases exceed, all the standard requirements for conventional fired-clay bricks. As seen, with comment appended, in excerpts from the initial link in this dispatch to:
"Combustion Byproducts Recycling
Manufacturing Fired Bricks With Class F Fly Ash from Illinois Basin Coals
Final Report: September 1, 2004 – August 31, 2006
By: Dr. Mei-In (Melissa) Chou, et. al.
Illinois State Geological Survey (and) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Support for this project provided in part by the US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, through its Cooperative Agreement (No. DE-FC26-998FT40028) with the West Virginia University Research Corporation, Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium (CBRC).
The cooperation and in-kind contributions provided by the Colonial Brick Company, Cinergy PSI, and the Indiana Geological Survey are valued and appreciated.
The purpose of this project was to determine if Class F fly ash produced by one of the power generation stations of the Cinergy PSI is a viable raw material for brick production at a nearby brick plant. This power generation station is located in Indiana near the Illinois border, and burns Illinois Basin coals from both Illinois and Indiana.
A technical feasibility assessment was conducted for this process, which uses fly ash as a substitute for part of the clay and shale used in making conventional bricks.Commercial-scale production demonstrations, which included extrusion and firing evaluations, have produced a total of about 4,000 commercial-size paving bricks and 8,000 commercial-size three-hole building bricks for evaluation. The paving bricks contained 20% by volume of fly ash, and the building bricks contained 20%, 30%, or 40% by volume (about 37% by weight) of fly ash.
These final products have met or exceeded ASTM standard specifications for pedestrian and lightweight traffic paving bricks and for building bricks of a severe weather grade.
An economic evaluation indicated that it would be economically feasible for the brick plant to use the fly ash as a raw material in commercial brick production.
Also, the environmental feasibility study showed that, similar to the regular commercial brick, the fly ash containing bricks are environmentally safe construction products.
This project was successfully completed, and the results indicated that the fly ash tested is a viable raw material for brick production at the nearby brick plant. The amount of fly ash that can be consumed will depend on the brick plant’s production rate and the amount of ash that can be successfully incorporated into the brick body. If bricks with 40 weight% of ash can be produced, and if a brick plant produces sixteen million bricks per year at five pounds per brick, about 14,000 tons of fly ash could be consumed by that plant each year.
Background: For the past five years, researchers at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS)/University of Illinois (UIUC) have been working with brick manufacturers to develop high quality, marketable brick products that use high-volumes of Class F fly ash generated from burning Illinois coals.
In this fired brick-making process fly ash is substituted for part of the clay and shale, the two main ingredients of conventional bricks. Test bricks produced in previous project years using Illinois fly ash have met or exceeded commercial specifications.
The process developed has now been commercially accepted and a joint venture by a major Illinois brick
company and an utility company has been established to build a new brick plant in Illinois which will produce fly ash containing bricks.
This project was supported in part by the United States Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the West Virginia University Research Corporation, Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium, as well as the utility and brick industries.
The purpose of this project was to determine if Class F fly ash produced by one of the power generation stations of the Cinergy PSI, which burns Illinois Basin coals from both Illinois and Indiana, is a viable raw material for brick production at a brick plant located less than five miles from the power station. The objectives of this project were to conduct the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility assessments of using the fly ash in commercial brick production.
The project also facilitated communication between brick producers and utilities, which focused on the use of fly ash in commercial brick production. It also facilitated continued public outreach promoting the benefits of producing brick products containing fly ash.
This project was completed successfully, and the results indicated that the fly ash tested is a viable raw material for brick production ... .
The amount of fly ash that can be consumed will depend on the brick plant’s production rate and the amount of ash that can be successfully incorporated into the brick body. At a brick plant’s current production rate of sixteen million bricks per year (five pounds per brick), utilizing 40 wt% of fly ash per brick would result in an annual consumption of approximately 14,000 tons of fly ash.
The number of bricks produced in the U.S. has steadily increased each year. In 2001, nationwide production was estimated at 8.3 billion SBE (standard brick equivalents). By the year 2003, it had increased to 8.6 billion. In 2004, the production reached 9.3 billion, which would weigh 23.25 million tons at five pounds per brick. When looking at these statistics, it is evident that the brick market and demand for bricks are strong. Successful commercial use of bricks containing fly ash could provide an example for a growing and profitable market for Illinois Basin coal ashes, encourage electric companies to continue to use Illinois Basin coals, and develop new sources of raw materials for fired brick manufacturing."
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We'll close our excerpts there, although the full report is well worth reading for anyone genuinely interested in how Coal Ash can serve in the making of bricks that are at least, in terms of physical properties, equivalent to bricks made of entirely of conventional raw materials and can, thus, enable greater economies and environmental benefits to brick manufacturers.
We are compelled to note that this study was quite conservative, limiting Coal Ash replacement of conventional mineral raw materials to 40%, while other documents, such as "United States Patent Application 20120031306 - Bricks and Method of Forming Bricks with High Coal Ash Content", cited in our introductory comments, suggest that the bulk of the raw material going into fired bricks can be Coal Ash.
Using the figures provided by our subject, "Manufacturing Fired Bricks With Class F Fly Ash from Illinois Basin Coals", if the entire US brick-making industry began to use Coal Ash at the 40% level, then a little over nine million tons of Coal Ash could be so productively utilized.
That's not a lot in the grand scheme of things. Certainly, it pales in comparison to the potentials, as in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Pittsburgh Converts Coal Ash and Flue Gas into Cement | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 5,766,339 - Producing Cement from a Flue Gas Desulfurization Waste; 1998; Assignee: Dravo Lime Company, Pittsburgh; Abstract: Cement is produced by forming a moist mixture of a flue gas desulfurization process waste product containing 80-95 percent by weight calcium sulfite hemihydrate and 5-20 percent by weight calcium sulfate hemihydrate, aluminum, iron, silica and carbon ... wherein said source of aluminum and iron comprises fly ash"; and:
West Virginia Coal Association | Federal Highway Administration Recommends Fly Ash Concrete | Research & Development; concerning the Federal Highways Administration report: "'Infrastructure Materials Group: Fly Ash'; Fly ashes are finely divided residue resulting from the combustion of ground or powdered coal. ... In addition to economic and ecological benefits, the use of fly ash in concrete improves its workability, reduces segregation, bleeding, heat evolution and permeability, inhibits alkali-aggregate reaction, and enhances sulfate resistance. One of the most important fields of application for fly ash is PCC (Portland Cement Concrete) pavement, where a large quantity of concrete is used and economy is an important factor in concrete pavement construction. FHWA has been encouraging the use of fly ash in concrete";
for consuming Coal Ash, first, as a raw material in the manufacture of Portland-type Cement, and, then, as a fine, reactive aggregate in Portland-type Cement Concrete. We make and use a lot, really a lot, more Cement and Concrete in the United States than we do fired Bricks.
But, for a Coal-fired power plant operating in the general vicinity of a Brick kiln, - -
(which, as can be learned from the Brick Industry Association, via:
Overview of the American Brick Industry; "in 2008", conventional fired "brick was manufactured in over 160 plants located in 38 states";
there are a fair number of, so it's likely that there will be at least a few Coal-fired power plants close enough to Brick kilns to make the effort worthwhile)
- - it might be mutually beneficial for all concerned to see if a supply arrangement couldn't be reached.
Like the use of Coal Ash as an economical, property-enhancing filler in plastics, as seen, for just one example, in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Texas Converts Coal Ash to Cash | Research & Development; concerning, for one example out of several, similar, in the full report, "United States Patent 6,916,863 - Filler Comprising Fly Ash for Use in Polymer Composites; 2005; Assignee: Boral Material Technologies, TX; Abstract: The present invention is a fly ash filler or filler blend ... that can be combined with a polymer at higher filler loadings to produce a filled polymer for polymer composites that, in many cases, can produce improved mechanical properties for the polymer composites over polymer composites using conventional fillers";
the productive use and consumption of Coal Ash in the making of fired Bricks represents yet another, if only incremental, step towards the full and complete, profitable, utilization of all the byproducts that arise from our essential use of Coal in the generation of abundant, and truly affordable, electric power.
And, for some Coal-fired power plants in some locations, it could be a step well worth taking; and, if they do take that step, then, in those Coal Country locations, maybe it won't only be "McDonald's" that's "hiring".
But, if Coal Country news outlets don't soon begin to make publicly known what potentials exist for the full employment of the byproducts arising from our Coal use, as, for an additional, different, example, seen in:
West Virginia Coal Association | Iceland, August 2012, CO2 to Gasoline and Diesel | Research & Development; concerning: "US Patent Application 20120201717 - Process and System for Producing Liquid Fuel from CO2 and Water; 2012; Assignee: CRI, Iceland; Abstract: A process and system for producing high octane fuel from carbon dioxide and water is disclosed. The feedstock for the production line is industrial carbon dioxide and water, which may be of lower quality. The end product can be high octane gasoline (or) high cetane diesel";
then, maybe we common folk in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the rest of United States Coal Country should just stop reading their rags and stop buying their advertisers' products. Maybe we should do our best to see to it that our current crop of Coal Country news editors and Coal Country news writers, like Coal miners, are forced to pick up some new job skills, like burger flipping and griddle grease scraping.
The way it is now, in any case, they would be doing us all a lot more productive good with spatulas in their hands than with the pens and notebooks they're currently - - to no good, forward-looking purpose that we've so far been able to discern - - just doodling with.
Maybe we need to find a way to let our Coal Country journalists know, that: "McDonalds is Hiring!"