Introduction

Abstract

Coal is the largest source of fuel for generation of electricity throughout the world. The power sector will be the main driver of India’s coal consumption. Currently, around 69% of the electricity consumed in India is generated from coal. Coal reserves in India are plentiful but of low quality. India has 10% of the world’s coal reserves, at over 92 billion tons, third only to USA and China in total reserves. The full utilization of coal is limited by the presence of high levels of ash and sulfur in it. During coal combustion, the mineral matter transforms into ash, and the amount of ash is so large that it is not easy to utilize ash effectively. Fly-ash is the finely divided mineral residue resulting from the combustion of ground or powdered coal in electricity generating plant. It consists of inorganic matter present in the coal that has been fused during coal combustion.