International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 06 Issue: 12 | Dec 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2019, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 385 ‘‘FLY ASH BOON OR BANE’’ ANMOLPREET SINGH NAGPAL 1 , KAWALJEET KAUR 2 1 Agronomy Executive, Mahindra Agri Solution, Punjab, India 2 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Agriculture, CT Group of Institution, Punjab, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - The combustion of coal give us the end product Fly ash (FA). Industries depend upon the primal material coal to generate electricity. The left-over of these mega industries has large portion of FA which is just a waste and needs to be dispose-off safely without harming the environment. This solid waste is growing day by day and need to be taken care off. After the several years of research it was proposed that it can be used in the agriculture sector as a nutrient provider and soil amendment. The major dispute which came and was the question of the hour, is the use of FA safe and sound due to presence of heavy metals and radioactive nature. The current researches had claimed that it can be used in the reclamation of the acidic soil and there is no accumulation of heavy metals inside the soil as well as plant parts which can be toxic. If sum up the things we can say that we can kill two birds with same stone first we can get rid from the tons of solid waste and we can provide the farmer a cheap source of nutrient which is free of cost. Government is also aiding in this process, there are many governmental policies which are helping for the safe disposal and usage of the fly ash in agriculture sector. May be in the near future it can be used as the major source of nutrient provider and helps to raise the socio-economic status of the farmer. Key Words: Fly ash, soil amendment, nutrient provider, 1. INTRODUCTION Natural resources has been exhausted to great extent which leads to various environmental constrains therefore it is the need of hour to find out the alternative source which does not cause the environmental pollution one such product is fly ash. FA is the finely divided residue resulting from pulverized coal combustion and transported by exhaust gasses from the combustion chamber. In 2001, more than 61 million tons of FA (68 million tons) was produced. Coal-fired electrical and steam-generating plants produce FA. Typically, coal is pulverized and blown into the combustion chamber of the boiler with air where it ignites immediately, generating heat and producing a molten mineral residue. Boiler tubes extract heat from the boiler, cooling the flue gas and hardening and forming ash from the molten mineral residue. More than 20 million metric tons (22 million tons) of FA are used annually. Coal is used as a major source of energy production particularly for generating electricity. According to recent data, India's electricity production capacity is 100,000 megawatts and 73% is generated by thermal power plants. Mainly 85 units are dependent on the natural resource coal from our country’s entire electricity generation model. The Indian coal has a calorific value range of 2800-4200Kcal / kg and is 35 to 50 percent abundant in FA. In addition to the good initial investment around one acre of land is necessary one megawatt power for production. In our nation 26, 300 hectare comes under FA pool. FA has a major problem of solid waste and a growing pollutant to the environment. For the year 2007, proven global coal reserves were estimated at 847 billion tons. The United States holds the largest share of global coal reserves (25.4 %), followed by Russia (15.9 %), China (11.6 %) and India (8.6 %) Sarkar et al., (2012). The annual production of FA is increased 1.0 million metric tons (MT) to 112 MT approximately in the year 1947 to 2005. FA production is expected to reach 225 MT annually by 2017, according to estimates from the FA Utilization Program (FAUP) Kumar et al., (2005). Though FA can be used as a waste material for economic purposes such as construction, cement, industries etc. FA is basic in nature and contains high concentration of minerals. It is enriched with both macro and micronutrients. It can be used as a nutrient source for plants to improve the physical chemical properties of soils. FA however, may also have toxic metals (Rautary et al., 2003, Lee et al., 2006, Tiwari et al., 2008). In agriculture, the use of FA provides a feasible alternative for its safe disposal to improve the soil environment and increase crop productivity. Kumar et al.,(2005) stated that FA has great potential to alter the physical properties of the soil therefore it act as good soil conditioner along with this it provides nutrient and vitamins to the soil. 1.1 CHARACTERSICS FEATURES Coal - based thermal power plants from around the world face severe handling and disposal problems with the FA produced. The Indian coal's high ash content (30–50 percent) makes this issue more complex. Roughly 85 thermal power plants currently produce nearly 120 million tons of coal ash per year. The spherical shape of the FA particles ranges from 0.5 micron to 100 micron. It mainly contains crystalline and amorphous silicon dioxide (SiO2) in two forms (smooth and rounded). FA has physical and chemical properties. Including physical properties such as Specific gravity is one of the key physical properties needed to use coal ashes. The specific gravity of coal ashes is generally about 2.0, but it can vary widely (1.6 to 3.1). Distribution of grain size shows the weather of a