Location
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Start Date
14-5-2024 2:30 PM
End Date
14-5-2024 3:00 PM
Description
As coal-fired fossil plants are retiring and lower volumes of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) are being produced, the generators of Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) producers across the nation are focused on harvesting landfilled and ponded coal ash to maintain the supply for beneficial use markets such as those volumes needed by the concrete mixing industry. To aid in the development of more efficient harvesting strategies, research performed in the emerging Geomaterials Testing and Research Laboratory (GTRL) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science (UTC – CECS & BGE) in collaboration with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The first of such research effort is to evaluate the potential use of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) instrumentation, criteria, and methods to perform quantitative chemical composition analysis as an effective tool and technique for the characterization of CCRs to assess their potential use as CCPs. This report documents the progress towards using such highly mobile XRF instrumentation, as we determined the time for analyses and investigated calibration criteria that are specific to fly ash materials’ unique chemical composition. Here we present the correlation of data obtained by a pXRF to previously analyzed Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) data using the default (non-calibrated) settings of the pXRF and a fly ash calibration. We also demonstrate the repeatability of the pXRF on a sample of fly ash to further support the application of the instrument. The efforts within this study amount to a proof-of-concept worthy to continue testing the pXRF as an instrument to facilitate analysis on large quantities of in-situ CCRs that is fit for the purpose of determining potentially harvestable materials for beneficial use (CCPs).
Document Type
Presentation
Paper_A Comparative Evaluation of Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) Analysis on Fly Ash
Grand Rapids, Michigan
As coal-fired fossil plants are retiring and lower volumes of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) are being produced, the generators of Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) producers across the nation are focused on harvesting landfilled and ponded coal ash to maintain the supply for beneficial use markets such as those volumes needed by the concrete mixing industry. To aid in the development of more efficient harvesting strategies, research performed in the emerging Geomaterials Testing and Research Laboratory (GTRL) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science (UTC – CECS & BGE) in collaboration with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The first of such research effort is to evaluate the potential use of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) instrumentation, criteria, and methods to perform quantitative chemical composition analysis as an effective tool and technique for the characterization of CCRs to assess their potential use as CCPs. This report documents the progress towards using such highly mobile XRF instrumentation, as we determined the time for analyses and investigated calibration criteria that are specific to fly ash materials’ unique chemical composition. Here we present the correlation of data obtained by a pXRF to previously analyzed Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) data using the default (non-calibrated) settings of the pXRF and a fly ash calibration. We also demonstrate the repeatability of the pXRF on a sample of fly ash to further support the application of the instrument. The efforts within this study amount to a proof-of-concept worthy to continue testing the pXRF as an instrument to facilitate analysis on large quantities of in-situ CCRs that is fit for the purpose of determining potentially harvestable materials for beneficial use (CCPs).
