Assessing viability of processing ash and slag dumps for energy-efficient ash beneficiation at Magadan CPP

Complex processing of ash and slag waste is a supported directions for the development of environmental friendliness and performance in power engineering. The rational use of this waste in large-scale production processes has now been realized in the construction field. The development of up-to-date beneficiation technologies raises the possibility of extracting various useful components from ash and slag wastes. This study aims to investigate the potential for using energy-efficient ash beneficiation to produce a heavy metal-containing fraction and separate the magnetic fraction. To assess the feasibility of ash beneficiation and its rational use, the technical documentation of ash and slag dumps of PJSC “Magadanenergo” was studied, and semi-quantitative analyses of samples collected from these dumps were carried out. The data on the content of useful components and quantities of ash and slag enabled us to develop complex beneficiation flow sheets, assess their process efficiency, and evaluate their potential financial viability. The estimated volume of metals to be recovered includes 785 tons of Ti (me-1), 183 tons of Sr (me-2), and 4,867 tons of Fe (me-3). The performance indicators of the beneficiation and aggregated values of economic indicators for this project implementation on an industrial scale were calculated. The economic feasibility of the ash processing project showed good values for two out of three models over a ten-year planning horizon. Implementing the project also effectively improves the environmental situation by potentially processing up to 10% of the total volume of ash dumps, fulfilling one-fifth of the Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation’s requirements until 2035. While investigations of ash from the Magadan Cogeneration Power Plant (MCPP) are not new, they were not previously carried out within the framework of studying integrated processing of ash to obtain various useful components.