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CHARACTERIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF RESIDUES FROM COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS
Citation:
Bahner, M. A., K. Weitz, AND M. M. Walker. CHARACTERIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF RESIDUES FROM COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-02/083, 2002.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined on December 15, 2000, that regulations are needed to control the risks of mercury air emissions from coal-fired power plants. The thrust of these new regulations is to remove mercury from the air stream of fossil-fuel-fired power plants, and the inevitable result is that mercury removed from the air stream will become part of the lioquid/solid waste stream called the coal combustion residues (CCRs). These CCRs include bottom ash, fly ash, dry scrubber residues (mixtures of fly ash and sulfur/alkaline reaction products), aqueous wastes, and scrubber sludge. These residues may be disposed of in monofills, mixed waste landfills, or sludge impoundments. Some residues may also be used commercially. For example, fly ash is often used as a feed stock for cement kilns, and gypsum is sometimes manufactured from flue gas desulfurization residues. This report characterizes mercury and other toxic releases resulting from the management and reuse of CCRs (mainly fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfinization material) from coal-fired power plants. For the reuse of CCRs, data are being collected for high-temperature processes (e.g., cement production) that exhibit a high potential for the re-release of mercury or other toxic pollutants. These data and life cycle information included in this report provide an up-to-date characterization of toxic releases from processes
that utilize coal combustion residues.