Abstract

Coal-based thermal power plants (TPP) are among the primary sources for producing electricity in India. However, along with that they also generate the significant amounts of fly ash as by-products. The goal of the present work was to assess the proper levels of organic persistent pollutants in coal and fly ashes. Presence of various types of pollutants were investigated in different proportions such as major elements, minor element as well as trace elements the fly ash by-products. The current study is based on the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pesticides in the above-mentioned by-products, the samples of were collected from a coal based thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh. The analysis of coal, fly ash, and bottom ash using solid-liquid extraction method and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was done individually for 14 PAHs and 11 pesticides. To detect the leaching behavior of heavy metals (Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Al, Cu, Pb, Ni, Co, Mo, Cr, B, and Se), the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) was used. Apart from this, the present study also elaborates the ecological risk associated with heavy metals present in coal, fly ash and bottom ash. Result showed that incomplete combustion of the coal and atmospheric conditions lead the PAHs (naphthalene: 0.110 µg/g, 0.080 µg/g, 0.030 µg/g in coal, fly ash and bottom ash respectively) and pesticides (α-HCH: 0.0012 µg/g, 0.00115 µg/g, 0.00029 µg/g in coal followed by bottom ash and fly ash respectively). The study encourages to adopt phytoremediation technique while reclaiming the ash filled voids and mines.

Keywords

Coal, Ashes, Leaching, Contamination Index, Ecological risk index.

Cite this article

M, Singh NK, Bajpay PK, Srivastav S, Shukla SP, Mohan D, Verma S, Manar MK. Ecological risk and leaching behavior of heavy metals, distribution of PAHs and pesticides in coal and coal-derived ashes. Energy Intelligence and Sustainability. 2025;1(1):21-30. DOI : 10.19101/EIS.2025.11001

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