Utilization of Fly Ash for Building Industries in Botswana : Present Scenario and Future / Venkata P. Kommula, S. K. Panigrahi & Clever Ketlogetswe

Fly ash is a pozolanic industrial waste i.e. in the presence of water; it will combine with an activator to produce a cementitios material. Globally, more than 800 million tones of fly ash is being produced at annual basis. Only about 15% of this fly ash is being used while the rest of it is disposed off as a waste material. In the future, the volume of fly ashes discharged from the thermal power stations will be increasing more and more, and the development of the utilization of high volume of fly ashes needs an immediate attention. In the present investigation, the technical utilization of fly ash as a low-cost material in various applications at national level has been reviewed. A simple framework for the efficient use of fly ash in Botswana in manufacturing of building bricks is presented. It has been found the fly ash produced in Botswana has very good pozzolanic property and can be used for making building materials such as bricks so that low cost bricks can be produced from this industrial waste. The authors attempted to produce low cost bricks using Botswana fly ash and their properties have been discussed briefly.