An assessment of the physical, mineral, and rheological properties of fly ash for stowing in coal mines

With increasing environmental awareness, utilization of fly ash has become an attractive alternate to disposal. The objective of the present study was to investigate the physical, chemical, mineral, and rheological characteristics of fly ash for their potential utilization in stowing operation. The study was conducted with fly ash collected from the ash disposal system of Guru Govind Singh thermal power plant, Ropar, Punjab, India. From the characterization of the fly ash sample, it was found that the ash sample is enriched predominantly in silica; alumina and iron oxides fall under the category of F-type fly ash. The major mineral crystalline phase identified in the ash sample is quartz and mullite. Because of the properties of fly ash, it can be used as a stowing material in coal mines. The data obtained for critical velocity will help design a slurry pipeline system for the hydraulic stowing of fly ash slurry at any concentration and pipe size.