Three Teams in the US Join Forces and Give New Life to Stored Ash

LafargeHolcim (US) has announced a new "multi-year project" that will give new life to ash lying in existing repositories.

In the second week of November, Holcim, and its subsidiary, Geocycle and CenterPoint Energy Inc. announced a 'major milestone' in their multi-year initiative with the first shipment of coal ash. This shipment is part of a project that Holcim estimates will result in the "recovery and recycling of more than six million tons of coal ash for beneficial reuse in producing cement," they said in a recent press release.

Amongst the three companies, US$80 million in infrastructure was purchased to extract, process, transport, store and recycle the coal ash produced at CenterPoint Energy’s A.B. Brown generating station in Evansville, Indiana. This ash is then transported for use in concrete at LafargeHolcim’s flagship cement plant in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, reducing the number of natural materials whilst recycling piled ash.

Lafarge Holcim's CEO for US cement, Toufic Tabbara said, “This milestone is an example of how industry participants together can develop creative and efficient solutions that contribute to the circular economy. Together, LafargeHolcim, Geocycle and CenterPoint Energy will avoid landfilling for power plants and reduce the consumption of non-renewable raw materials. This is a clear win-win for people and our planet,” she said.

The first shipment that was received, contained approximately 2,000 tonnes of bottom, and fly ash from CenterPoint Energy’s A.B. Brown plant.

Since 2009, Geocycle has managed the supply of approximately 1.5 million tonnes of dry fly-ash waste from CenterPoint Energy’s A.B. Brown, F.B. Culley and Warrick generating stations for reuse at the Ste. Genevieve cement plant. This first shipment represents the next phase in operations amongst the companies. Steve Greenly, the Senior Vice President of Indiana Electric Operations for CenterPoint Energy said the decision to recycle the ash has reduced the impact on the environment and allowed for a choice with less financial impact than other compliance options. He told Holcim, “Our multi-year initiative with LafargeHolcim and Geocycle has been the ideal solution as it has allowed for the material to be removed from the environment and used for beneficial purposes,” he said.

According to the American Coal Ash Association, only 52% of the 78.6 million tonnes of coal ash produced in electricity generation in 2019 was reused in the US. The balance (37.6 million tonnes) was disposed of in landfills or ponds. There are more than 2 billion tonnes of stored ash in the US. To manage the amount of ash stored unnecessarily, federal regulations are attempting to mandate the closure of ash ponds and encouraging the recycling of the materials in products like cement to achieve environmental and economic benefits.

With careful material sourcing and testing, this initiative advances the treatment of stored ash material for beneficial reuse in the fabrication of more environmentally friendly concrete mixes.

Holcim says this beneficiation technology, which included trials on CenterPoint Energy’s ponded coal ash, is being deployed in select markets that are experiencing fly-ash shortages due to the ongoing retirement of coal-fired power plants in the US. Sophie Wu, Head of Geocycle North America said, “This significant circular-economy relationship with CenterPoint Energy is a powerful example of how our Geocycle recycling management business seeks out innovative solutions to turn our nation’s ecosystem challenges into opportunities that contribute value to our operations and advance our leadership commitment to a Net Zero future,” she said.