Production geopolymer materials by coal fly ash

Coal ash is the main waste from power plant. It is estimated that the consumption of the coal for power plant will increase to 240 million tons each year and the coal ash wastes will produce more than 2 million tons per year. Although the utilization of coal fly ash can be reached 74.1%, large amount of coal fly ash and bottom ash still cannot be utilized. The purpose of this research is to develop a process to manufacture geopolymer using coal fly ash waste. The test results show that the characteristics of waste coal fly ash-based geopolymer have great physical/mechanical properties for fire resistance test. A 10 mm thick geopolymer panel was exposed to a 1100 flame, with the measured °C back-side temperatures reaching less than 470 after 30 minutes. The products can be fabricated for construction °C purposes and have great application potential. Keyword: coal fly ash, geopolymer, fire resistances