According to the US Department of Energy, “…coal is the nation’s major fuel for electric power”. While we all know efforts are being made to change that statistic, the fact remains that coal will play a large role in how the country fulfills it near-term power needs.

So, if this is a fact that we cannot deny, then we must ask ourselves are efforts being made to reduce the negative environmental impacts of coal? Whether it be pollution into the air, water or the solid waste, how can we reduce the environmental footprint left behind by coal? There are many potential solutions yet to be realized, and each of the possible solutions deserves to be reviewed and considered.

A solution that I believe has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of coal ash we must store in landfills or ponds, is being profiled on the Discovery Channel on March 11th (and can be viewed afterward on YouTube). PMI Ash Technologies (www.pmiash.com), one of the first companies to commercialize an environmental solution for fly ash, is a company that (in full disclosure) I am proud to be a part of.

With all the negative discussion about fly ash – especially in the last year – it is great to be a part of a company that has an environmentally beneficial solution to reusing fly ash into concrete.

The technology for this process was first commercialized in 1999 and is called “Carbon Burn-Out (CBO)”. CBO combusts residual carbon in fly ash and produces a very consistent, low carbon, high-quality substance for use in concrete. The process also recovers heat from the ash and sends it back to the power plant, reducing the amount of coal needed for generation.

“As a result, since a PMI plant at Chesapeake Energy Center (CEC) has been operational, they have been able to avoid over 400,000 tons of fly ash going into a landfill,” explains Kyle Crake, President PMI Ash Technologies. “Additionally, CO2 emissions have been reduced by approximately 300,000 tons”.

Finally, the resulting “green” concrete will serve as a solid foundation for sustainable construction projects around the country as we work to rebuild our economy.