Design and construction of facilities for handling of ashes at the concrete production plant
Several different fine powder raw materials are potential for use in concrete. At least two different cement types and two other powders, fly ash and silica fume, are used on a daily basis at the average Danish ready mixed concrete plant.
In order to be able to produce concrete with an extra powder material it is necessary to establish silo facilities at the concrete production plant. To be able to handle bio ash it is essential that facilities such as storing capacity, batching equipment and conveyors are available.
As part of the present project UNICON will extend the production facilities (silo, conveyor and batching equipment) to accommodate bio ash at their large ready mixed concrete plant in Avedøre. The Avedøre plant is serving parts of the greater Copenhagen area.
Once the design planning is finished the necessary approvals will be obtained by the authorities, and a contractor will be selected to construct the ash handling facilities. When in place and tested in terms of mechanics and electrics, the ash handling facilities will be subject to trial mixing of concrete. Final approval to implement the new facilities in the daily production will be given if all tests are successful.
Progress Indicators – 1) Authority approval of construction plans, 2) Trial concrete batching using new ash handling facilities.
Expected results – Demonstration facility for production of ready mixed concrete with bio ash. The target is to obtain a facility in daily operation, which is acceptable to the operator in terms of economic feasibility, being user-friendly and are safe for occupational health and safety and environmental quality.
Constraints - As there is already much expertise in the concrete industry on the handling of dry powders it assumed that a proper design is relatively straight forward in this new application.