Post-treatment of Fly Ash by Ozone in a Fixed Bed Reactor

The residual carbon in fly ash produced from pulverized coal combustion can adsorb the air-entraining admixtures (AEAs) added to enhance air entrainment in concrete. This behavior of the ash can be suppressed by exposing the fly ash to oxidizing species, which oxidizes the carbon surface and thus prevents the AEA to be adsorbed. In the present work, two fly ashes have been ozonated in a fixed bed reactor and the results showed that ozonation is a potential post-treatment method that can lower the AEA requirements of a fly ash up to 6 times. The kinetics of the carbon oxidation by ozone was found to be fast. A kinetic model has been formulated, describing the passivation of carbon, and it includes the stoichiometry of the ozone consumption (0.8 mol of O-3/kg of C) and an ineffective ozone loss caused by catalytic decomposition. The simulated results correlated well with the experimental data.