News on the topic of “Fly Ash and Coal Use” in Europe from 2017
Over the last years an increasing market for the use of coal combustion products (CCPs) produced in coal-fired power stations has been developed. Approximately 60 million tonnes of CCPs were produced in the European Union (EU 15). Around 88 % of the CCPs were utilized in the building industry, for construction work in underground coal mining as well as for recultivation and restoration purposes in open cast mining. About 8% of the CCPs produced were temporarily stockpiled as a raw material base for future utilization.
Meetings held in 2016-2017
The ASHTRANS 2016 conference was held on October 17-18 and then relocated to Lisbon, Portugal. The change of date and place is due to a close cooperation with CoalTrans.
ASHTRANS is the international meeting platform for byproducts logistic and trading. The conference serves as a platform for commercial meetings, to exchange views and to meet with potential commercial partners for setting up deals or just to evaluate new possibilities. It is of interest for producers and users of all byproducts and those who engage in any kind of transportation and logistic solutions related to the products of interest. The conference may also be relevant for certifying bodies, authorities and environmental interested parties, as well as deposition plant companies.
The EUROCOALASH 2017 conference was held on February 8-9 in Brno, Czech Republic. It is subtitled with “Innovations in power Plant technology and CCPs Utilization” and will allow all interested parties to participate in updating on production of CCPs in the power plants and the use of CCPs as valuable raw and construction materials in different types of applications.
Production of CCPs in Europe
The ECPBA statistics on production and utilization of CCPs reflect the typical combustion products fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag and fluidized bed combustion ashes as well as the products from dry or wet flue gas desulphurization, especially spray dry absorption and flue gas desulphurization gypsum. 47% of the fly ash, 44% of the bottom ash, 100% of the boiler slag and 51% of the FBC ash were utilized in the construction industry and in underground mining. Less than 3% of the fly ash, 10% of the bottom ash and 29% of the FBC ash had to be disposed off. In dry and semidry desulphurization processes 0.49 million tones od SDA product (spray dry absorption product) and in wet FGD approximately 11.3 million tones of FGD gypsum (flue gas desulphurization gypsum) were produced.
Figure 1. Coal-Fired Electric Generation Retirements
Germany: Since 2010, German coalfueled generation has been competitive relative to natural gas-fired generation based on falling coal prices, lower CO2 emission costs, and increasing natural gas prices. Consequently, between 2010 and 2014 production from coal-fueled power plants increased while gas and nuclear power generation contracted. The fuel switch from gas to coal due to low-cost coal-fueled power plants served as an interim baseload capacity while renewables were still in the developmental stages. The interim fuel strategy was especially important to Germany’s nuclear phaseout plan following Japan’s Fukushima disaster. During this period, the increase in coal-fueled generation resulted in seasonal excess inventories of CCPs for export to other countries and served as one of ZAG International’s earlier fly ash sourcing options for the U.S. and Europe. In 2015, the German government introduced a series of measures to reduce CO2 emissions, and the energy policy continues to evolve toward a heavily weighted renewables emphasis moving forward. Since the implementation of these policies, CCPs are now in short supply and primarily consumed within the regional commercial markets, notably Scandinavia.
The Netherlands: The Netherlands is Europe’s secondlargest producer of natural gas, after Norway, with much of the supply utilized domestically. Although the country has installed 3000 MW of coal-fueled power capacity since 2014, its government is committed to the EU and international climate action. It will participate in the EU strategy and attempt to reduce CO2 emissions 17% by 2030 and 60% by 2050. As of late 2016, the Dutch parliament voted to support the closure of all unnecessary coal-fueled generating capacity to meet its Paris climate commitments. Between 2012 and 2014, CCPs from this region supplemented the German fly ash export supplies to the U.S. However, since then, CCP supply has been limited to distribution within regional markets.
United Kingdom: Further complicating the global supply picture for CCPs, in November 2015 the UK government announced a commitment to phase out the use of coal-generated electricity by 2025. This planned coal phaseout represents a multi-decade trend away from coal that started with investments in natural gas plants and then renewables. In recent years, the UK has become a net importer of concrete-grade fly ash and is served by regional supply sources from Europe and Turkey. Furthermore, the UK has committed to a major nuclear power plant with Chinese participation.
Italy: In October 2017, the Italian government, as part of the National Energy Strategy, announced a plan to phase out coal-fueled generation by 2025. While the strategy was signed on November 10, 2017, it is non-binding and will need to be implemented through future executive measures. Historically, Italy has exported its annual excess CCP volume to the U.S. and throughout the Mediterranean region for cement manufacturing, concrete, and gypsum wallboard applications. ZAG projects that while supply availability from this country may decrease somewhat in the future, it should continue to remain an option in the intermediate term. The key question is how reliable this will be due to the unstable political and economic situation in Italy.
Spain: Although natural gas is the single leading fuel in Spain’s power mix, the combined contribution from renewables (wind, solar, and hydro) already supplies approximately 50% of Spain’s total electricity generation. While coal power generation supplies approximately 10% of Spain’s electricity, CCPs for export have been available from time to time on a “spot” basis based on local commercial market demand. Here again, reliability of supply is a challenge.
Portugal: In November 2016, the Portuguese environment minister confirmed that the country’s power plants will eliminate coal-fueled generation by 2030. This was reaffirmed in 2017 when introducing the Roadmap to 2050 Carbon Neutrality. Similar to the Spanish approach to exporting CCPs, Portugal has exported CCPs on a “spot basis” from time to time, depending on the supply/demand balance within the domestic market.
Figure 2. All CCPs production and use with percent.
Resources: ECOBA European Cooperation
http://www.ecoba.com/news,archiv.html?id=2016
https://www.acaa-usa.org/Portals/9/Files/PDFs/ASH01-2018.pdf
Ksenia Kaplieva-analyst