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Ash and slag from thermal power plants are abundant sources for production of NFBs.
One of the pioneering businesses to respond, invest in the production line, use ash and slag from thermal power plants to produce non-fired bricks (NFB) is Thanh Tuyen Group Joint Stock Company. Being put into operation in early 2017, up to now, the NFB plant (In Binh Khe commune, Dong Trieu town, Quang Ninh province) of Thanh Tuyen Construction Co. Ltd has provided to the market different types of products, even exported to foreign markets.
Talking with the reporter of Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Vu Thanh Tuyen, General Director of Thanh Tuyen Group Joint Stock Company, said that Thanh Tuyen was proud to take the lead in the country to produce NFBs using fly ash and waste slag from thermal power plants. Currently, the plant's capacity reaches 100 million bricks/year, of which 70% is NFBs made from fly ash. Moreover, from the production of NFBs, we have created jobs for about 250 employees with an income of over 7 million VND/person/month, while contributing to solving difficulties from handling fly ash and slag of thermal power plants in Quang Ninh province.
"Since the production of NFBs to the present, we have been evaluated very well by our customers about the products because of their sustainability and environmental friendliness" - Mr. Vu Thanh Tuyen affirmed and said that the Government needs to pay attention, encourage and promote businesses in time to invest in technologies to handle fly ash and waste slag from thermal power plants.
Mr. Vo Quang Diem - Chairman of Viet Nam National Roofsheet Association said that currently, the amount of ash and slag of thermal power plants is a strong pressure on the environment. The Government has issued many mechanisms and policies to turn ash and slag into a source of input materials for the building material manufacturing industry, especially for the production of NFBs. However, due to the relatively long distance of transportation from thermal power plants to NFB plants, the amount of ash and slag used as input materials for building materials manufacturing plants is still not much.
"At present, only Thanh Tuyen plant has used up to 70% of ash and slag as input materials, while other plants are using commonly at 9 - 10%" - Mr. Vo Quang Diem stressed, also expressed that this is a matter that the Government needs to study to make more incentive mechanisms, formulate preferential policies, standards and technical regulations on ash and slag quality as raw materials for production of NFBs.
In the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Lecturer of Faculty of Building Materials, National University of Civil Engineering shared, ash and slag from thermal power plants are very good raw materials for the production of NFBs. Currently, some units have used fly ash in the composition of NFBs to increase the smoothness, increase the waterproofing, and enhance the strength of NFBs.
However, there is a difficulty that not every unit or province is close to these material sources, so the transportation costs will be large, limiting the use of fly ash in NFB products. Accordingly, it is necessary to have policies to support businesses on transportation costs to both increase the quality of NFBs and solve the environmental pollution caused by ash and slag discharged from thermal power plants.
Businesses using coal ash and slag to produce NFBs will invest in technology but the Government also needs to timely have reasonable support policies to ensure sustainable development of businesses.