Coal powered power plants account for more than 40 percent of the electricity production of the United States. The combustion of coal results in a large number of solid waste materials, or coal combustion byproducts (CCBs). These waste materials are stored in landfill or ponds. The construction industry is heavily reliant on concrete which is used to make the building blocks for any type of structures, bricks. Concrete is a composite material made of a binder and coarse and fine aggregate. The most widely used binder in concrete production is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). Since cement manufacture is costly and environmentally damaging, research has increased in recent years to find a more readily available binder. This study aims at investigating the properties of Illinois fly ash as a binder in the production of geopolymer concrete. Geopolymer concrete is an innovative material made by using Alumina and Silica rich materials of geological origins as a binder as well as an alkali activated solution. Sodium Silicate and Sodium Hydroxide were used to make the activator solution of two different ratios. Geopolymer Concrete with a ratio of 1:1 of Sodium Silicate to Sodium Hydroxide reached a compressive strength above 6000 psi while samples made with a ratio of 1:2 reached a compressive strength above 4000 psi. This environmentally-friendly, green concrete was also found to have a cost comparable to conventional concrete.

Since a substantial amount of coal combustion byproducts (CCB) are produced each year, generating value-added product from fly ash, which is a major constituent of these CCBs, has been an important area of research for several decades. Natural magnetite (NM), which is used to maintain dense medium slurry pulp density in coal preparation plants, has a current market value of more than $200 per ton. The use of fly ash derived magnetite (FAM) as an alternative to natural magnetite has potential benefits for dense medium processes, such as lower cost, greater stability at low medium density, more efficient delivery systems. This study developed a suitable processing scheme to extract high-grade (> 96%) magnetite from fly ash generated from burning high sulfur coal, and investigated the suitability of the FAM product for dense medium application in coal preparation plants. A classifying cyclone was utilized in the process flow sheet for the pre-concentration of FAM in its underflow stream, which was enriched to high grade FAM by a single stage wet magnetic separator of low intensity (~1000 gauss). A statistically designed experimental program was utilized to maximize the magnetite grade and recovery achieved from the above mentioned flow sheet. The FAM product particles had a slightly coarser particle size distribution than the NM particles. In addition, the FAM particles were found to have a spherical shape; but about one unit lower specific gravity in comparison to the NM particles. However, the F5 Stability Index of the resulting FAM product was found to be in the desired range of 30 to 40 for its suitable application as a dense medium. The coal cleaning performance obtained from a 0.15 m diameter dense medium cyclone using dense medium prepared from both of FAM and NM, were quite similar. However, the effective separation density (SG50) obtained from the FAM-based dense medium was significantly different from the medium density; this may need further investigation in future. A preliminary economic analysis, conducted for a hypothetical mini-plant having a fly ash handling capacity of 100 ton/hour, indicated the cost of FAM extraction to be nearly $5/ton. The cost assumes that the FAM extraction plant is located at the fly ash producing utility site and does not include the cost of thermal drying that may be required to reduce the moisture content of the FAM filter cake produced at the FAM plant. A preliminary civil engineering study conducted to investigate the effect of FAM extraction on the compressive strength property of the non-magnetic flyash (left behind after FAM extraction) failed to produce a conclusive finding. The specimens prepared using 10% and 30% fly ash replacements indicated that the compressive strength does not change due to FAM extraction. However, the specimens using 20% fly ash replacement indicated that compressive strength does change due to FAM extraction. Hence, a more detailed study is recommended to investigate this discrepancy.

No description available.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1958 S49

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1953 L57 / Master of Science

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016. / This study has explored the CVD synthesis of carbon nanofibres (CNFs) using Eskom’s waste coal fly ash as a catalyst with acetylene and hydrogen as the carbon source and carrier gas, respectively. In the process, a possible growth mechanism for these carbon nanofibres was sought. CNFs were successfully synthesised from fly ash and were found to have an average diameter of 22±7 nm. The growth mechanism of these CNFs was studied using EDS, TEM and laser Raman spectroscopy. It was observed that CNFs grew via root growth on spherical particles of fly ash and by tip growth on irregular-shaped metal oxide agglomerates. Both of these were found, through EDS analysis, to be Fe-rich. CNFs were functionalised between 2-12 h under reflux at 110 °C using a 3:1 (v/v) combination of HNO3 and H2SO4 in order to introduce functional groups onto their surfaces to act as anchors for hydrophilic reactants. The functionalisation of these CNFs was studied using TEM, laser Raman spectroscopy, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, PXRD, BET, XRF and TGA. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy showed that some carbonyl functional groups were present on the surfaces of these CNFs after functionalisation. The functionalised CNFs (fCNFs) were then treated using a simple hydrothermal method to deposit 10% (m/m) of TiO2 nanoparticles onto their surface. This hydrothermal method employed the drop-wise addition of TiCl4 to a cold water-fCNFs mixture, which was then refluxed at 115 °C for 2-12 h. Laser Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of both TiO2 (phase pure anatase) and CNFs. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy provisionally revealed the presence of covalent Ti-O-C bonds. Studies where the duration of exposure to TiCl4 and the functionalisation time of CNFs were examined showed that the particle size and agglomeration of the TiO2 nanoparticles did not affect the surface area of the CNF-TiO2 hybrids significantly. However, CNF-TiO2 hybrids which were shown by TGA to have high fly ash content were observed to have low surface areas. fCNFs functionalised at 2 h had the highest surface area, at all fixed durations of exposure to TiCl4 by comparison with fCNFs which had been functionalised for longer periods. / GR2016

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2015. / Fly ash is a by-product generated during the combustion of coal for electricity gen- eration. Previous studies have shown that various waste fly-ashes (Japanese, Saudi Arabian, and Australian) contain trace quantities of transition metal elements which can be used in the synthesis of shaped carbon nanomaterials. A survey of the litera- ture has shown that no attempts to correlate the composition of a particular coal fly ash and the type or quantity of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) that can be synthesized has been made. Neither has the effect of leached fly ash been tested for the synthesis of CNMs. Hence a study on the effect of the chemical composition of South African fly ash (collected from ESKOM’s Duvha power station in Mpumalanga) upon the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) synthesis of carbon nanostructures is justified. Untreated and chemically treated fly ash samples were used as catalysts in the CVD method to synthesize CNMs. In the latter case selective leaching experiments were conducted on the fly ash samples under acidic, basic and neutral conditions. Op- timal CNM synthetic conditions were achieved by initially flowing H2 gas to re- duce the metal oxides within the fly ash catalyst followed by the introduction of the carbon source (C2H2) at a temperature range of 600 - 800 ◦C. All samples were quantitatively and/or qualitatively characterized. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques were used to quantify the metal ions which were removed from the fly ash samples. Fur- thermore, qualitative studies were conducted with (PXRD, and laser Raman spec- troscopy), morphological and surface area characterization techniques (SEM, TEM and BET) were used to investigate the synthesis of CNMs from the untreated and chemically treated fly ash samples. Results have shown that carbon nanofibers (CNFs) of different geometric morpholo- gies were synthesized at an optimal yield temperature of 700◦C. A combination of smooth, thin, wide, spiral platelet-like, stacked cup, and fishbone morphologies were reported when the untreated fly ash catalyst was used. Fly ash catalysts under acidic, basic and neutral treatments showed CNFs of varying sizes and specific morpholo- gies. Smooth graphitic platelet-like, stacked cup and platelet-like CNFs were re- ported when the fly ash catalyst was leached with neutral, basic and acidic solutions. Carbon nanofibre sizes with the IG ID ratios were reported as follows 115 nm (1.092), 52 nm (0.799), and 200 nm (0.960) under neutral, basic and acidic mediums respec- tively. Surface areas (41, 14 and 7) m2/g for the CNFs that were synthesised from the neutral, basic and acidic treated fly ash catalysts were related to the selective leaching of metals. The quality and quantity of CNFs obtained under acidic medium were associated with the leaching of iron (5.6%), cobalt (1.7%), calcium (20.4%), copper (12.5%), chromium (4.6%), magnesium (23.3%), manganese (15.2%) and nickel (2%) from the fly ash catalyst. Under a basic medium only chromium (0.2%), calcium (0.3%) and copper (7.4%) were removed. Significantly the best quality of CNFs was ob- tained when fly ash was treated under neutral conditions. Metal ions such as: cal- cium (3.7%), copper (3.8%), chromium (0.1%), and magnesium (1.3%) were mod- erately removed from the ash matrix. Therefore, composition and quantity of the fly ash catalyst had an effect on the synthesis of CNFs.

Thesis. 1976. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 321-328. / by Ashok S. Padia. / Sc.D.

On-going research at Texas A&M University indicated that soil stabilization using calcium chloride filter cake along with Class F fly ash generates high strength. Previous studies were conducted with samples containing calcium chloride filter cake and both Class C fly ash and Class F fly ash. Mix design was fixed at 1.3% and 1.7% calcium chloride and 5% and 10% fly ash with crushed limestone base material. Throughout previous studies, recommended mix design was 1.7% calcium chloride filter cake with 10% Class F fly ash in crushed limestone base because Class F fly ash generates early high and durable strength. This research paper focused on the strength increase initiated by greater than 1.7% pure calcium chloride used with Class F fly ash in soil to verify the effectiveness and optimum ratio of calcium chloride and Class F fly ash in soil stabilization. Mix design was programmed at pure calcium chloride concentrations at 0% to 6% and Class F fly ash at 10 to 15%. Laboratory tests showed samples containing any calcium chloride concentration from 2% to 6% and Class F fly ash content from 10% to 15% obtained high early strength however, optimum moisture content, different mix design, and mineralogy deposit analysis are recommended to evaluate the role and the effectiveness of calcium chloride in soil stabilization because of the strength decreasing tendency of the samples containing calcium chloride after 56 days.

Thesis (doctoral)--Helsinki University of Technology, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.