• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.201-206
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• 2013

The coal bottom ash and reject ash discharged from a coal-fired power plant are difficult to recycle so most of them are mainly landfill-disposed. In this study, the artificial aggregate were produced using reject ash, bottom ash and dredged soil emitted from the coal-fired power plant in Korea and the effect of experimental factors on the bloating behavior and the properties of the aggregates were analyzed. In particular, a lot of unburned carbon in the reject ash was removed by calcination and the activated carbon was added to batch powders then the dependence of those process upon bloating properties of artificial aggregate were investigated. For this purpose, the specific gravity and water absorption values of artificial aggregates were investigated in conjunction with microstructural observations. This study could contribute to increase the recycling rate of the reject ash.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.121-125
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• 2015

Distribution of rare earth metals (REMs) and rare valuable metals (RVMs) contents in coal ashes (fly ash, bottom ash, and pond ash) and leachate from 11 coal-fired power plants in Korea were investigated. Coal ashes and leachates were found to contain important REMs and RVMs such as Yttrium (Y) and Neodymium (Nd), which was in the range of 23~75 mg/kg. However, it still requires developing effective recovery and separation methods in order to utilize REMs and RVMs in ash and leachate. Recovery of valuable elements (Y and Nd) from various and extensive ash sources (8.21 million tons/year in 2013) can provide the existing power plants with additional profit; therefore, it can significantly improve economics of the power plants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.1051-1060
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• 2008

The use of the coal ash for surcharge material, in a view of the environmental aspect, can decrease amount of the reclamation through recycling waste materials as well as prevent a destruction of the ecosystem attributed to sand picking. In addition, it can reduce both unit cost of material and construction expenses. In this study, new construction material as alternative surcharge material using coal ash, which is by-product from thermoelectric power plant, were developed. Mixing ratios of fly ash and bottom ash derived from the coal ash in Samchunpo thermoelectric power plants were determined. Furthermore, mixing conditions depending on the ratios of the cement and gypsum used for chemical additive were determined too. Uniaxial compression strength tests were conducted at different mixing conditions and Design graph of optimum mixing ratio at each required strength for economic efficiency is indicated in this paper.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.67-75
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• 2015

The content distributions of some rare metals and rare earthe metals in coal ash (fly ash, bottom ash and pond ash) and leachate from coal-fired power plants were investigated. In case of Yttrium (Y) and Neodymium (Nd) which were strategic critical elements, their contents were ranged from about 23 ~ 75 mg/kg and it is shown they are worth to be developed for the recovery and separation method. Considering the annual amount of fly ash and bottom ash and pond ash, coal-fired power plants have great value of about 1,670 billion KRW and it is regards they are worthy as urban mines.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.32-40
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• 2013

This study was objected to evaluate the potential impact on the groundwater environment of the coal bottom ash used as fill materials on the land surface. From four coal-fired power plants, bottom-ashes were collected and analyzed through sequential extraction and column leaching tests following the meteoric water mobility procedure. The column tests shown leaching heavy metals including Pb, As, B, Cu, Zn, Mn, Ni, Ba, Sr, Sb, V, Cr, Mo, and Hg. The relatively high concentrations of B, Sr, Ba, and V in leachate were attributed to both the higher concentrations in the bottom ash and the relatively higher portion of leachable state, sorbed state, of metals. Bottom-ash samples from the D-plant only show high leaching potential of sulfate ($SO_4$), probably originated from the coal-combustion process, called the Fluidized Bed Combustion. Consequently, to manage recycling bottom ashes as fill materials, an evaluation system should be implemented to test the leaching potentials of metals from the ashes considering the absolute amount of metals and their state of existence in ashes, and the coal-combustion process.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.135-145
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• 2013

The recycling of coal bottom ash generated from coal power plants in Korea has been limited due to heterogenous characteristics of the materials. The most common management option for the ash is disposal in landfills (i.e. ash pond) near ocean. The presence of large coarse and fine materials in the ash has prompted the desire to beneficially use it in an application such as fill materials. Prior to reuse application as fill materials, the potential risks to the environment must be assessed with regard to the impacts. In this study, a total of nine test cells with bottom ash samples collected from pretreated bottom ash piles and coal ash pond in a coal-fired power plant were constructed and operated under the field conditions to evaluate the leachability over a period of 210 days. Leachate samples from the test cells were analyzed for a number of chemical parameters (e.g., pH, salinity, electrical conductance, anions, and metals). The concentrations of chemicals detected in the leachate were compared to appropriate standards (drinking water standard) with dilution attenuation factor, if possible, to assess potential leaching risks to the surrounding area. Based on the leachate analysis, most of the samples showed slightly high pH values for the coal ash contained test cells, and contained several ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulfate, and nitrate in relatively large quantities. Three elements (aluminum, boron, and barium) were commonly detected above their respective detection limits in a number of leachate samples, especially in the early leaching period of time. The results of the test cell study indicate that the pollutants in the leachate from the coal ash test cells were not of a major concern in terms of leaching risk to surface water and groundwater under field conditions as fill materials. However, care must be taken in extending these results to actual applications because the results presented in this study are based on the limited field test settings and time frame. Structural characteristics and analysis for coal bottom ash may be warranted to apply the materials to actual field conditions.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2019

Upon the combustion of coal particles in a coal-fired power plant, fly ash (80%) and bottom ash (20%) are unavoidably produced. Most of the ashes are, however, just dumped onto a landfill site. When the landfill site that takes the fly ash and bottom ash is saturated, further operation of the coal-fired power plant might be discontinued unless a new alternative landfill site is prepared. In this study, wet flotation separation system (floating process) was employed in order to recover unburned carbon (UC), ceramic microsphere (CM) and cleaned ash (CA), all of which serving as useful components within fly ash. The average recovered fractions of UC, CM, and CA from fly ash were 92.10, 75.75, and 69.71, respectively, while the recovered fractions of UC were higher than those of CM and CA by 16% and 22%, respectively. The combustible component (CC) within the recovered UC possessed a weight percentage as high as 52.54wt%, whereas the burning heat of UC was estimated to be $4,232kcal\;kg^{-1}$. As more carbon-containing UC is recovered from fly ash, UC is expected to be used successfully as an industrial fuel. Owing to the effects of pH, more efficient chemical separations of CM and CA, rather than UC, were obtained. The average $SiO_2$ contents within the separated CM and CA had a value of 53.55wt% and 78.66wt%, respectively, which is indicative of their plausible future application as industrial materials in many fields.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.80-86
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• 2012

The disposal of the bottom ash originated from a thermoelectric power plant which used the pulverized coal, has been an important issue of the power plants. In order to find the possible way of recycling of the bottom ash, the applicability of the bottom ash as an inorganic filler for paper making was investigated in this study. The pretreatment with acid were applied for upgrading the properties of bottom ash. The effects of the addition of the bottom ash to the different pulp stocks, Sw-BKP, DIP(Deinked Pulp), Sw-UBKP were evaluated in terms of the change in paper properties. The brightness and tensile strength decreased as the increase of the amount of the bottom ash addition. The bulk and the opacity were increased by the addition of bottom ash. The pretreatment of bottom ash resulted in the increase of improvement of the brightness and the strength properties comparing with those of untreated bottom ash.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.127-134
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• 2017

Bottom ash (BA) has different macro- and micronutrients such as B, Mo, Fe, Ca, and Mg, providing useful resources for plant growth and soil quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of artificial top-soil treated with BA in park area as a vegetation base material, especially for turfgrass growth. Collected BA was mixed with peat moss and clay at the ratio of 70:10:20 (w/w). In order to evaluate the park quality and turfgrass growth in park area, the artificial soil was applied with BA along with the control or without BA. Result showed that exchangeable K and P were increased by $11.4mg\;kg^{-1}$ and $163mg\;kg^{-1}$, respectively, compared to the control soil when the artificial soil was treated with BA. Microbial population and enzyme activity (Acid-phosphatase, APA) in artificial soil having BA also increased as 2 times and 10%, respectively, compared to the control soil. Comparing turfgrass growth and yield between general soil and artificial soil, about 2 times higher plant yield (fresh weight) was observed as artificial soil was applied comparing to general soil. Furthermore, nutrient concentration in turfgrass was averaged as 0.440% for $P_2O_5$, 0.456% for CaO, 1.198% for $K_2O$ and 0.188% for MgO that all values are higher than general soil (0.323% for $P_2O_5$, 0.416% for CaO, 0.610% for $K_2O$ and 0.173% for MgO). Application of BA can be useful for vegetation base material in park site.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.5-12
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• 2009

This study presents static and dynamic strength of coal ashes collected from disposal site of power plant. Main compositions of coal ashes were bottom ashes. In order to evaluate static and dynamic characteristics of coal ash, NGI direct-simple shear tests, cyclic simple shear tests and direct shear tests were conducted. The strengths of coal ashes from those tests were compared to those of sands. Bottom ashes among coal ashes used for this study were classified as sand from the grain size distribution and show higher strength properties than the sands. For utilization of coal ashes in civil engineering project, mixing coal ashes with sandy soil using batch plant is inconvenient and the cost is higher than the spreading sand layer and coal layer alternately. In order to simulate both mixing type and layered type construction, sands and coal ashes were mixed with volume ratio 50:50 and prepared sand and coal ash layers alternately with the same volume ratio. From the tests mixed coal ashes-specimen shows slightly higher static and cyclic strength than the layered specimen at the same density. The higher strength seems due to the angular grain of bottom ashes. The cyclic stress ratio at liquefaction decreases rapidly as the number of cycle increases at mixed specimen than that of layered specimen.