SOIL CONSERVATION UTILIZING FLY ASH
The nature takes near about 100 to 400 years to form 10 millimeters of top soil, & formation of 30 millimeters of top soil takes as much as 3,000 to 12,000 years. It is also important to note that despites swelling population, land area is constant & will remain the same in future.
In our country India of total 329 million hectares (mha) of land, it is estimate that 175 million hectares of land is degraded. The extent of land under agriculture is 143 mha & again 56% of it’s suffers from varying degrees of degradation. Therefore, it is essential to rethink about the alternatives of the raw materials for the brick manufacturing & it is essential for sustainable development to protect the land further degradation.
The burnt clay bricks industry in India produces over 360 billion bricks annually with strong adverse impact on soil erosion & unprocessed emissions. This amount of bricks consumes 15,500 hectares of land. For production of conventional size ( which are of 10”*5”*3”), top soil requires 2200 m3 per billion bricks per annum & for production of only million of clay bricks per annum 0.75 hectare of land required.
Another concern of degradation of soil is about the less utilization of fly ash, which is produced by the Thermal Power Plant (TPP). In India, over 120 million of fly ash produces annually from 260 million tones of coal (65% annual production of coal in India), which covers nearly 15,000 hectares of use full land. In India, only 3-4% of produced fly ash is uses whereas, country like China, America & Europe 40% of the produced ash are utilize.
Remedies: INSWARB developed a process by which utilizing the Fly ash we can produces high strength, eco-friendly bricks without using any fossils fuel. By using this type of bricks, we not only make the building stronger but from the environment point of view, it has following advantages:-
1. Production of each billion of fly ash bricks conserves 3.5 million tons of top soil, it is precious intangible wealth, as the population increases drastically, but the land area remains same.
2. Each billion of fly ash bricks abate emission of 3, 50,000 tons of carbon di oxide (CO2), which the main Green House Gas & its worth $3.5 million in International market.
3. Production of each billion of Fly ash bricks conserves 2, 00, 000 tons of precious finite coal or equivalent fuel worth Rs. 3000 million.
Fly-ash bricks & blocks are the right products under Clean Development Mechanism (CMD), abating carbon emission, conserving energy and top soil.
Thanks to India Gov. Initiative of Fly ash utilization mission under Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), any construction company under the radius of 100 KM within the Thermal Power Plant should uses fly ash bricks and fly ash cements by August, 2007, if they do not uses then the State Pollutions Control should take necessary steps for the utilization.
By the initiative of GREENO, in the coming September in Durgapur, West Bengal there will be a Fly ash bricks manufacturing unit. This has main motive to utilize the Fly ash as possible as it can from the seven power plants at Durgapur and reduces the uses of clay bricks.
