Investigation into production of light weight bricks from lime and fly ash of lignite fired thermal power plants

It is known that nearly 600 million tons of fly ash is produced as waste in the world per-annum. In Turkey, however, the annual production of fly ash is, on average, 13 million tons. Yet only a very small amount of this quantity is utilized. In this study, the production of lightweight high thermal insulating bricks made of fly ash that constitutes a great problem for coal-fired thermal power plants, is examined. Using fly ash from Seyitömer, Soma and Yatağan Thermal Power Plants, brick production through method of curing in the curing cabin and in high pressure autoclave, is tested in various experimental circumstances. Firstly, small bricks were produced and the optimum conditions were determined. In the optimum conditions that were determined, real-size bricks were produced and these samples were subjected to standard tests. Additionally, an economic evaluation of industrial size bricks was made. As a result of this study, it is found that fly ash bricks could be an alternative product to cellular concrete.