Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:18727–18740

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08864-4

WATER AND WASTE REMEDIATION PROCESSES: AN UPDATE

Utilization of coal fly ash in China: a mini-review on challenges

and future directions
Yang Luo 1,2,3 & Yinghong Wu 2,3,4 & Shuhua Ma 2 & Shili Zheng 2 & Yi Zhang 2 & Paul K. Chu 1

Received: 27 February 2020 / Accepted: 13 April 2020 / Published online: 28 April 2020
# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
The rapid economic development in China places a large demand for energy, and as a result, thermal power plants in China are
producing an enormous amount of coal fly ash (CFA) which causes severe environmental pollution. This paper briefly describes
the current production and utilization status of CFA in China and identifies the challenges confronting sustainable CFA utilization
as the Chinese economy is being transformed. These issues include a regional imbalance in supply and demand, reducing demand
in the real estate industry as well as stricter laws for environmental protection. Viable directions for future CFA utilization are
proposed, for example, production of CFA-based ceramic tiles, recovery of elemental resources, agricultural melioration, treat-
ment of wastewater and flue gas, and production of high-volume CFA concretes. This paper has some guiding significance for
sustainable and cleaner utilization of CFA in China and even worldwide.

Keywords Coal fly ash . China . Environmental problem . Sustainable utilization . Challenge . Prospect

Introduction
Highlights
• Sustainable utilization of CFA has been attracting intensive attention in China is the largest coal consumer around the world, and coal
China. accounts for more than 60% of the country’s energy mix (Peng
• Current status of production and utilization of CFA in China is et al. 2018; Wang et al. 2019). Coal fly ash (CFA), a solid
described. waste produced by coal-fired thermal power plants during the
• Sustainable utilization of CFA in China is facing challenges.
• Viable directions for future CFA utilization are proposed. combustion of pulverized coal, is currently one of the largest
• This paper has guiding significance for more sustainable CFA solid wastes in China (Yao et al. 2015). In 2018, the annual
utilization. output of CFA in China exceeded 550 million tons, and owing
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues to insufficient utilization, the total accumulated CFA has
exceeded 3 billion tons.
* Shili Zheng The chemical composition of CFA is very complex, and it
slzheng@ipe.ac.cn contains eleven common elements (O, C, S, Si, Al, Mg, Fe,
* Paul K. Chu Ca, K, Na, and Ti) and trace elements such as Hg, Pb, As, Cr,
paul.chu@cityu.edu.hk Cd, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ba, B, and Ni (Feng et al. 2018).
1
Furthermore, CFA in the form of fine airborne powder is very
Department of Physics, Department of Materials Science and easy to drift with the wind and especially the heavy metals in
Engineering, and Department of Biomedical Engineering, City
University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China CFA can cause serious pollution in the air, water, and soil. The
2 notorious smog problem in China in recent years is closely
CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, National
Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production related to the pollution stemming from CFA (Shi et al. 2016).
Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Recently, much attention has been paid to improve the sus-
Sciences, Beijing 100190, China tainable utilization of CFA in China. Although Chinese uni-
3
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of versities, research institutes, and companies have been devel-
Sciences, Beijing 100049, China oping new technologies to improve CFA utilization, sustain-
4
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, able and cleaner utilization of CFA faces some new chal-
Kowloon, Hong Kong, China lenges. In this paper, the current production and utilization
18728
status of CFA in China is summarized, and challenges of CFA
utilization in China and possible future trends and directions
are discussed.
Methodology
Most of the data used in this paper are from publications in the
databases of Google Scholar and Web of Science, and the
statistical data are from the China Knowledge Centre for
Engineering Sciences and Technology (http://www.ckcest.
cn) and web portals of PRORESEARCH (https://www.
proresearch.org) and CHINABAOGAO (https://www.
chinabaogao.com). The literature review consists of 157
journal publications and 5 book chapters. It is worth noting
that all the references are in English. It is emphasized that most
of the representative publications (103/162) cited are by
Chinese scholars because these articles can better reflect the
local level, development, and directions of CFA utilization in
China.
Current status of production and utilization
of CFA
CFA production
The rapid economic development and a large population in
China require an enormous amount of energy. Given that coal
is China’s largest energy source, coal power plants are the
workhorse in the electricity industry and Fig. 1a displays the
proportion of thermal power in China from 2002 to 2018.
Despite the rapid development of hydroelectric power and
other new energy technologies such as solar energy, nuclear
energy, and wind energy, coal remains the biggest source of
energy. CFA is the major solid waste from coal power stations,
and consequently, the huge CFA discharge causes serious
waste of land resources and environmental pollution.
Figure 1b indicates the annual production, utilization, and
utilization rate of CFA from 2002 to 2018 in China, and the
Fig. 1 a Chinese power
generation capacity and structure
from 2002 to 2018. b Production,
utilization, and utilization rate of
coal fly ash in China from 2002 to
2018
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
production of CFA is increasing yearly. Although the utiliza-
tion rate is also generally increasing as well, the utilization rate
is only about 70%, meaning that the accumulation of CFA
continues to go up and up to 3 billion tons of CFA are not
consumed. Hence, sustainable CFA utilization is facing great
challenges as shown by the slight decline of utilization rate in
2017 and 2018, as displayed in Fig. 1b. How to continue to
improve the utilization of CFA is in fact one of the urgent
issues in China.
CFA utilization
CFA is a kind of powder-like aluminosilicate solid waste cap-
tured from the effluent gas after coal combustion (Qi et al.
2019d), and the typical morphology and mineral phase are
shown in Fig. 2. Table 1 shows its typical chemical composi-
tion range. The Chinese government has been vigorously pro-
moting resource utilization of CFA, and a stable utilization
pattern has been formed as shown in Fig. 3. Paving, mine
backfilling, cement, concrete, and low-end building materials
account for about 56% of CFA production. Although paving
and backfilling technologies are simple and their consumption
of CFA is large, there are potential safety hazards at construc-
tion sites due to the loose nature of CFA (Wang et al. 2004).
Since the 1950s, CFA has served as an additive in the produc-
tion of cement and concrete and it is the most successful uti-
lization technique worldwide (Teixeira et al. 2016). CFA has a
similar chemical composition as Portland cement and good
pozzolanic activity (Shang et al. 2018; Xu et al. 2016).
When mechanically activated CFA is introduced to cement
or concrete, the mechanical strength and durability are im-
proved significantly (Lu et al. 2018; Mo et al. 2017; Shi
et al. 2011; Zhuang et al. 2016). In fact, CFA-based hollow
block (Wu et al. 2015; Shi et al. 2019), CFA-based permeable
brick (Wang et al. 2016a), and CFA-based insulation board
(Luo and Wang 2008; Qi et al. 2019c) are quite popular in
China due to simple process and low cost. Besides, about 9%
production of CFA is in emerging applications such as high-
end building materials (ceramics), element extraction, and ag-
ricultural melioration.
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740 18729

Fig. 2 Typical SEM image and

XRD pattern of CFA

Challenges of sustainable CFA utilization 30 years, there is an oversupply of housing and buildings in
in China most parts of China (Zhu et al. 2018) and the expected

Regional imbalance in supply and demand

Table 1 Typical chemical composition range for CFA. (Ahmaruzzaman
2010; Blissett and Rowson 2012)
China is a large country, and its regional development is
uneven. In general, the southeastern coastal areas are sup- Composition Bituminous Sub-bituminous Lignite
ported by a commodity-based economy and the western
SiO2 20–60 wt% 40–60 wt% 15–45 wt%
and northern regions have a resource-based economy
Al2O3 5–35 wt% 20–30 wt% 10–25 wt%
(Wang and Ducruet 2014). The population and economic
Fe2O3 10–40 wt% 4–10 wt% 4–15 wt%
development in the southeastern coastal areas is far ahead
CaO 1–12 wt% 5–30 wt% 15–40 wt%
of the western and northern regions, thereby giving rise to
MgO 0–5 wt% 1–6 wt% 3–10 wt%
a serious regional imbalance in the supply and demand of
SO3 0–4 wt% 0–2 wt% 0–10 wt%
CFA. Figure 4 displays a map of the accumulation and
consumption of CFA in China. The rapid economic devel- Na2O 0–4 wt% 0–2 wt% 0–6 wt%
opment in the southeastern coastal areas has brought in a K2O 0–3 wt% 0–4 wt% 0–4 wt%
large amount of infrastructure construction projects which LOI 0–15 wt% 0–3 wt% 0–5 wt%
have a great demand for CFA-based cements and con- As 40–97 ppm
cretes. In many large cities such as Shanghai and B 15–323 ppm
Shenzhen, there is a shortage of CFA causing the price of Ba 639–1999 ppm
CFA to soar. On the other hand, in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Be 6–12 ppm
and Shaanxi, for example, a large number of coal-fired Cd 1–2 ppm
power plants have been and are being built due to the Co 30–48 ppm
abundant coal resources (Fang et al. 2019; Luo et al. Cr 137–172 ppm
2004; Yao et al. 2014). However, owing to the sparse pop- Cu 73–118 ppm
ulation and slow economic development, a large amount of Ge 3–15 ppm
CFA piles up. These areas are generally arid (Wu and Ci Hg 0.2–0.3 ppm
2002), and CFA is more likely to migrate and pollute the Li 150–252 ppm
ecological environment. CFA has a small bulk density Mo 7–13 ppm
(0.5–1.2 g/cm3) so its long-distance transportation is not Ni 87–144 ppm
cost-effective. Therefore, how to solve the regional imbal- Pb 59–109 ppm
ance between supply and demand is the primary problem Rb 50 m–147 ppm
for better CFA utilization in China. Sb 4–8 ppm
Se 6–13 ppm
Sn 7–10 ppm
Reducing demand in the real estate industry Sr 384–1647 ppm
V 202–278 ppm
As shown in Fig. 3, about 80% of CFA is used by the con- Zn 123–175 ppm
struction industry in the form of cement, concrete, and other
building materials. However, after rapid expansion for LOI is the loss on ignition
18730
Fig. 3 Current utilization pattern of CFA in China (data for 2018 obtained
from the China Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and
Te c h n o l o g y ( h t t p : / / w w w. c k c e s t . c n ) a n d w e b p o r t a l s o f
PRORESEARCH and CHINABAOGAO (https://www.proresearch.org,
https://www.chinabaogao.com))
reduction in residential and infrastructure construction will
reduce the consumption of CFA. Hence, there is a big need
to broaden the utilization of CFA into other areas.
Stricter requirements for environmental protection
The rapid development of China’s economy has been some-
what at the expense of the environment and resources,
resulting in heavy metal contamination (Zhou and Wang
2019), sand storms (Li et al. 2018), and smog (Sun et al.
2016a). On the heels of increasing environmental awareness,
the Chinese government has introduced a series of strict
Fig. 4 Map showing accumulation and consumption of CFA in China
(the density of ICON representing the accumulation and consumption
qualitatively)
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
environmental laws to control pollution such as national plans
to mitigate the air, water, and soil pollution in 2013, 2015, and
2016, respectively. On the one hand, under the pressure of
stricter environmental regulations, it is more urgent to resolve
the CFA pollution. On the other hand, such enactment has put
big burdens on the cement industry (Hu et al. 2018b) and
many small and medium cement manufacturers have been
forced to cease production in order to abide by the new envi-
ronmental regulations and reduce overcapacity. In fact, the
main consumers of CFA in China are these small and medium
cement manufacturers. Therefore, the decrease in utilization
rate in 2017 and 2018 is indeed related to the reduction of
cement production, as shown in Fig. 1b.
Future directions
In response to the aforementioned challenges, new ways to
utilize CFA are being explored, and in this section, four gen-
eral directions of sustainable CFA utilization in China are
discussed.
CFA-based ceramic tile preparation
China is the largest producer and consumer of ceramic tiles in
the world (Ye et al. 2018) and its production of ceramic tiles
from 2010 to 2017 is shown in Fig. 5. They are dense and
higher value-adding materials in the building industry.
Comparing traditional CFA and CFA-based cement, the trans-
portation of CFA-based ceramic tiles is more efficient and
economical. Therefore, CFA-based ceramic tiles not only
solve the problem that utilization of CFA is heavily dependent
on the cement industry but are also beneficial to the sale of
CFA products from the western and northern China to south-
eastern coastal areas.
Ceramic tiles are typically prepared from a triaxial formu-
lation containing clay (30–60 wt%), feldspar (15–40 wt%),
and quartz (5~30 wt%) (Carty and Senapati 1998; Kamseu
et al. 2007), as shown in Fig. 6. Clay serves as a binding agent
Fig. 5 Production of ceramic tiles in China from 2010 to 2017
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
Fig. 6 Typical ternary ceramic
formulation
for the other ingredients among the green-pressing and pro-
vides plasticity in ceramic molding (Turkmen et al. 2015).
During the sintering process, clay is gradually converted into
needle-like mullite crystals which ensure the strength of the
sintered samples (Leonelli et al. 2001). Feldspar reacts with
other components during sintering to form a liquid which
promotes shrinkage and compaction of the ceramic matrix
(Wattanasiriwech and Wattanasiriwech 2011). Quartz is rela-
tively inert during sintering and prevents excessive shrinkage
and distortion of the ceramic tiles (Reinosa et al. 2015).
Sintered ceramic tiles have a bond-type dense matrix with
quartz and mullite crystals wrapped by a uniform glassy phase
(Serra et al. 2015). CFA as a kind of aluminosilicate is similar
to raw ceramic materials in chemical composition, and the
energy consumption for CFA grinding is low because its par-
ticle size is quite small (less than 100 μm) (Kutchko and Kim
2006). Therefore, CFA can be deemed to be an alternative raw
ceramic material. In several Chinese companies, CFA is uti-
lized to substitute for most quartz and a part of feldspar. Quartz
substitution is due to the inertness and stability of CFA during
sintering (Dana et al. 2004; Mukhopadhyay et al. 2010; Pal
and Das 2018), and CFA can substitute some feldspar to pro-
mote liquid generation because it contains abundant alkali and
alkaline earth metals (Das et al. 2013; Kockal 2012; Olgun
et al. 2005). However, the current problem is that the quantity
of CFA added to ceramic formulations is still small (below
30 wt%) since it still cannot substitute clay which is the major
ingredient in ceramics.
The plasticity of clay is derived from the chemical bonding
water in the laminated structure. Nevertheless, as a high-
temperature product, CFA has very poor plasticity and cannot
function as a clay-like binder. Besides, CFA does not produce
needle-like mullite crystals in the subsequent sintering pro-
cess. Some studies have focused on the substitution of CFA
for clay in ceramic production but the results are not very
good. For example, Kumar et al. (2001) have used CFA to
gradually substitute clay in the porcelain ceramic formulation
and investigated the corresponding mechanical properties of
products. When the substitution of CFA exceeds 25 wt%, the
18731
mechanical properties of the ceramic products deteriorate sig-
nificantly due to drastic reduction of the mullite crystals in the
ceramic matrix. Zimmer and Bergmann (2007) have evaluated
the mixture of CFA and clay as a raw material for preparation
of ceramic tiles and observed that the flexural strength of the
green samples decreased with increasing CFA contents. Ilic
et al. (2003) have used CFA to form a monolithic ceramic
material and analyzed mineralogy and microstructure of
sintered CFA. Their results show that the role of CFA in ce-
ramic formulations during sintering is similar to the dual ac-
tion of feldspar and quartz rather than clay. If CFA can sub-
stitute a portion of clay, the substitution amount of CFA in raw
ceramic materials may be promoted significantly.
Luo et al. (2017a) have found that the smaller the particle
size of CFA, the more alkali and alkaline earth metals are
enriched. This means that smaller CFA particles play a role
closer to that of feldspar, whereas the bigger ones are similar
to quartz. Qi et al. (2019b) have demonstrated that the particle
size of floating beads can be used as a regulating factor for the
sintering of CFA-based ceramics and the performance of
CFA-based ceramics can be significantly improved by chang-
ing the particle size of floating beads. By developing an alkali-
activation pretreatment technology, CFA can substitute for
clay adding 50–100 wt% in ceramic production (Luo et al.
2017b). The alkali-containing solution after several consecu-
tive cycles can be used to prepare calcium silicate ceramics
(Zhu et al. 2016) or thermal insulation ceramic foams (Luo
et al. 2019). Based on the alkali-activation process, a demon-
stration project has been built by a Chinese ceramic manufac-
turer in 2016, as shown in Fig. 7. The ceramic products meet
the national technical standard (GB/T 4100-2015) and CFA-
based ceramic tiles may become a CFA-based product after
CFA-based cement and concrete in the near future.
Element extraction
CFA being rich in aluminum can be used as a substitute for
bauxite to produce Al2O3. The extraction of Al2O3 from CFA
was first proposed by Grzymek and successfully operated in
18732 Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740

Fig. 7 Photograph of the demonstration project

Poland in the mid nineteenth century (Grzymek 1976; developed. The current techniques for Al2O3 extraction from
Hosterman et al. 1990). Since then, the international academia HAFA can be roughly divided into the calcination method,
has made many attempts in this field (Rayzman et al. 1997). acid method, and hydrochemical method (Ding et al. 2017;
Representatively, Seeley et al. (1981) proposed a process Sun et al. 2017; Yao et al. 2014). The calcination method uses
called Calsinter to extract Al2O3 from CFA and the recovering Na2CO3 or CaCO3 as the sintering agents to convert Al2O3 in
rate reached 95%. Mehrotra et al. (1982) used a gas-fluidized HAFA into soluble compounds (Jiang et al. 2015). The Al2O3-
bed reactor to chlorinate the Al2O3 in CFA and found that a bearing compounds are then leached with water or Na2CO3
chlorination rate of 25% could be realized at 900 °C using solution to dissolve Al2O3 in the liquid phase (Bai et al. 2010)
carbon and carbon monoxide as reducing agents. Padilla and and Al2O3 crystals are precipitated after impurity removal and
Sohn (1985) investigated the application of the lime-soda sin- crystallization from the Al2O3-rich solution. Depending on the
ter process for Al2O3 extraction from CFA, and the results specific operation, the calcination method can be subdivided
showed that an extraction rate of about 80% could be obtained into the lime-stone calcination process, lime-soda calcination
by sintering CFA mixes at 1200 to 1250 °C for 20 to 30 min. process, and combination process of pre-desiliconization and
However, the insufficient Al2O3 to SiO2 ratio in CFA brings lime-soda calcination (Xiao et al. 2014; Xue et al. 2019). The
some insurmountable drawbacks, such as complex operation, acid method uses H2SO4 or HCl acid to react with HAFA to
high energy cost, and an excess of silicon-rich residues as by- form Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 or AlCl 3 , respectively. The obtained
products. The demand for Al2O3 is rising but the bauxite re- aluminum-based compounds subsequently crystallize from
source in China is quite scarce. A newly found CFA called acidic solutions and decompose (Luo et al. 2013b; Zhu et al.
high-alumina coal fly ash (HAFA) in northwestern China has
attracted attention recently (Dai et al. 2010; Qi et al. 2018).
HAFA usually has an Al2O3 content of 40–50 wt% which is Table 2 Chemical composition of various typical HAFA (wt%)
equivalent to that of medium-grade bauxite (Cao et al. 2008;
Production place Al2O3 SiO2 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO LOI
Ding et al. 2016a, b; Yuan et al. 2015). The typical composi-
tion of HAFA is listed in Table 2. The HAFA output is esti- Inner Mongolia 1# 49.45 41.30 2.28 1.15 1.44 0.47 3.75
mated at 50 million tons per year and has led to a boom in the Inner Mongolia 2# 48.25 35.14 2.12 1.57 8.28 0.31 3.95
extraction of Al2O3 from CFA in China (Ding et al. 2017; Yao Shanxi 1# 41.54 44.59 3.67 1.78 2.05 0.41 5.53
et al. 2014). Shanxi 2# 44.58 41.98 3.28 1.81 3.32 0.36 4.57
In recent years, with the promotion of Chinese scholars, the
Al2O3 extraction technologies from HAFA have been greatly LOI is the loss on ignition
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
2015). The hydrochemical method was first reported by
Soviet researchers. In this process, the impurity SiO2 is con-
verted into an insoluble aluminum-free compound
(NaCaHSiO4) in a concentrated alkali medium to be separated
from the sodium aluminate solution, and the alumina extrac-
tion rate of Al2O3 is over 90% (Ding et al. 2016a; Ding et al.
2016b; Li et al. 2014; Yang et al. 2014b). In addition to these
three major methods, some other methods have been devel-
oped, for instance, the ammonium sulfate method (Wang et al.
2014; Wu et al. 2014) and the acid-alkali combination method
(Ma et al. 2019).
Although many Al2O3 extraction techniques have been de-
veloped, only the combination process of pre-desilication and
lime-soda sintering is adopted industrially so far. The other
pilot-scale tests have ceased because of the high cost of
Al2O3 production and difficulty in the cleaner utilization of
Al2O3-extracted residues. Realization of simultaneous extrac-
tion of gallium (Fang and Gesser 1996; Gong et al. 2016),
germanium (Zhang and Xu 2016; Zhang and Xu 2017), and
lithium (Hu et al. 2018a; Li et al. 2017) improves the econom-
ic benefits of the Al2O3 extraction process, and many products
such as calcium silicate materials (Ding et al. 2016b; Feng
et al. 2014; Li et al. 2015; Zou et al. 2016a), zeolite molecular
sieves (Luo et al. 2013a; Zou et al. 2016b, 2018), white carbon
black (Gao et al. 2017; Guo et al. 2017; Sun et al. 2016b),
SiO2 aerogel (Zheng et al. 2016), and paper filler (Yu et al.
2015) can be synthesized from Al2O3-extracted residues.
Recently, the separation methods of Ga and Ge have aroused
interest and been well developed in international academia
including precipitation, flotation, adsorption onto activated
carbon, solvent extraction, and ion-exchange (adsorption onto
chelating exchange resins) (Arroyo Torralvo et al. 2010;
Hernández-Expósito et al. 2006; Marco-Lozar et al. 2007;
Torralvo and Fernández-Pereira 2011), which should be used
for reference by China. Hence, element extraction from CFA
is quite promising in China.
Agricultural melioration
CFA which can improve the physical structure of the soil is
mainly composed of fine glassy particles with a small density
and internal pores. Hence, it can reduce the bulk density, im-
prove the permeability, adjust the surface temperature, and
reduce the expansion rate of soil (Lu et al. 2014).
Meanwhile, CFA can maintain the moisture content and soil
temperature (He and Shi 2012) and it is of great significance in
the arid northwestern China where a large amount of CFA is
accumulated. Besides, Si, Cu, Zu, Mo, and B in CFA are
essential elements for plant growth (Shaheen et al. 2014).
Energy and agriculture are the two pillar industries in north-
western China, and the development of agricultural applica-
tions of CFA helps the northwestern region to consume the
accumulated CFA and avoid long-distance transportation.
18733
Agricultural applications can further reduce the dependence
of CFA utilization on the construction industry. Akar et al.
(2012), Liu et al. (2020), and Zhao et al. (2018) found that
the CFA leaching solution is alkaline and leaching concentra-
tions of common heavy metals in CFA are lower than permis-
sible limits except for Cr. Before the large-scale application of
CFA in agriculture, it is necessary to carefully monitor the
leaching of heavy metals in CFA and their impacts on plant
growth, especially Cr. It has also been reported that As and Cr
in CFA can be synergistically detoxified by emerging electro-
chemical technologies before the resource utilization (Luo
et al. 2020). Researchers have been addressing the adverse
effects of alkaline substances and heavy metals in CFA on
the soil. It can be concluded that there are three main ways
to deal with leaching risks associated with CFA. Firstly, a lot
of researches have been conducted on a mixture of CFA with
various acidic organic agricultural wastes, such as vinegar
residue, fruit peel, cow dung, sewage sludge, compost, and
vermicompost, to neutralize the alkalinity of CFA and inhibit
the leaching of heavy metals (Jiang et al. 1999; Su and Wong
2002; Wong 1995; Zhang and Sun 2019). There are other
advantages for co-utilization of CFA with these organic by-
products such as lowering mobility and bioavailability of
heavy metals in soil, buffering the pH of soil, enhancing or-
ganic matters in soil, enhancing uptake of nutrient elements,
and stimulating microbial activity indirectly (Yao et al. 2015;
Yin et al. 2016). Secondly, it is reported that the pelleting
process can significantly lower the leaching of heavy metals
(Yoo and Jo 2003; Zhou et al. 2019). Finally, and most im-
portantly, long-term field trials considering the match between
CFA and existing soil and climatic conditions should be car-
ried out for the impacts of CFA utilization on soil health, crop
quality, and plant growth (Bi et al. 2003; Jambhulkar et al.
2018). Actually, the use of CFA in agriculture has been tried
worldwide (Ram et al. 2006, 2007; Pandey and Singh 2010).
The benefits of CFA to plant growth have been fully demon-
strated (Ram et al. 2006, 2007; Basu et al. 2009; Manoharan
et al. 2010; Pandey and Singh 2010; Ram and Masto 2014;
Shaheen et al. 2014), although some potential toxic side ef-
fects have also been identified (Manoharan et al. 2010;
Pandey et al. 2009; Bhattacharya et al. 2012). When the prob-
lem of heavy metals is fully overcome, CFA is expected to
flourish in agricultural applications.
Treatment of wastewater and flue gas
CFA particles have a porous surface and large specific surface
area resulting in high adsorption activity (Xu et al. 2013) and
preparation of economical and effective adsorbents from CFA
bode well for high-value recycling. CFA has great potential in
the treatment of wastewater, gas, and oil in environmental
remediation. In China, CFA and zeolites from CFA have been
studied and applied to cleaning of printing and dyeing
18734
wastewater (Wang and Zhu 2005); coking wastewater (Sun
et al. 2008), wastewater with heavy metals such as bivalent
mercury and hexavalent chromium (Deng et al. 2018; Ma
et al. 2018; Qi et al. 2019a; Yang et al. 2019); ammonia-
nitrogen wastewater (Chen et al. 2012); phosphorus-
containing wastewater (Zhang et al. 2007); oily wastewater
(Sun et al. 2011); and fluorine-containing wastewater (Lü
et al. 2010). Besides, Chinese researchers have employed
CFA in desulfurization (Lin et al. 2003), denitrification
(Wang and Wu 2006), and mercury removal (Yang et al.
2014a) of flue gas and acid fog reduction (Shu et al. 2015).
International scholars have also done a lot of exploration in
this direction, and CFA has been applied to adsorb sulfur
compounds (Matjie et al. 2018), NOx (Reddy et al. 2018),
mercury (Abad-Valle et al. 2011), and gaseous organics
(Kim et al. 2013) in flue gas and remove toxic metals
(Alinnor 2007), phosphate (Hermassi et al. 2017), fluoride
(Geethamani et al. 2014), boron (Ulatowska et al. 2019), and
organic pollutants (Ahmaruzzaman 2009) from wastewater. In
general, there are far more researches from China than other
countries on this application. Although these adsorption ex-
periments have shown good results, CFA-based adsorbents
are still in the basic research or test stage. At present, post-
treatment of used CFA-based adsorbents is the most critical
bottleneck plaguing industrialization. If the adsorbents after
use cannot be handled properly, more serious secondary pol-
lution may ensue. Nonetheless, on the bright side, the synthe-
sis of adsorbents is important to CFA recycling.
High-volume CFA concrete production
Concrete is the most used inorganic material in human society,
and it has been playing an irreplaceable role in the consumption
Fig. 8 Challenges, directions, and
solutions of sustainable CFA
utilization in China
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
of CFA (Sun et al. 2018; Yao et al. 2015). Against the backdrop
of deceleration of the real estate industry and reducing the ca-
pacity of cement plants, increasing the substitution of cement
with CFA in concrete is the key to stabilizing the utilization of
CFA in China. In the past, various standards have stipulated the
upper limit of CFA substitution in concrete. For example, the
upper limit of CFA substitution in concrete in both ASTM C
595 (American Standard) and GB1344-1999 (China National
Standard) is 40%, while a maximum of 35% is specified in EN
197-1 (European Standard). However, with the improvement of
the CFA utilization level, these restrictions have been gradually
abrogated. From a more scientific perspective, the standards for
CFA-based concretes should be specified by the concrete per-
formance rather than the raw material formulation. Currently,
the commercial substitution of CFA in concrete is limited, usu-
ally as 25–30%. The CFA-based concretes with such a substi-
tution level show an improved alkali-silica expansion, resis-
tance to sulfate attack, and thermal resistance (Wang et al.
2016b, 2020a). What is exciting is that a higher substitution
of more than 50% is possible and increasingly common in
recent researches. The new concrete with a CFA content of
more than 50% is called high-volume CFA concrete in acade-
mia. It is worth mentioning that the development of high-
volume CFA concretes is not only economically and environ-
mentally beneficial but also technically favorable in product
performance, such as better workability, superior dimensional
stability, higher resistance, and greater durability (Mengxiao
et al. 2015; Singh et al. 2019; Yu et al. 2017). The main disad-
vantages of high-volume CFA concrete are the decreases in
early age strength, strength development rate, and final strength,
which hinder its large-scale application (Sun et al. 2019; Wang
et al. 2020b). In response to the above issues, international
counterparts have carried out more cutting-edge researches,
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2021) 28:18727–18740
which may provide suggestions for the preparation of high-
volume CFA concrete in China. It has been found that the
potentially long delay in setting time can be alleviated to some
extent by adding rapid hardening cement, Ca(OH)2 and
nanosilica (Bentz and Ferraris 2010; Zhang and Islam 2012).
Varghese et al. (2018) have pointed out that its strength devel-
opment rate at early ages can be significantly improved by
mechanical grinding, chemical activation of CFA, and
addition of supplementary cementitious materials like blast
furnace slag, silica fume, metakaolin, and nanosilica. The
research of Siad et al. (2018) confirmed that incorporation of
glass powder could significantly improve the compressive and
flexural strengths, resistance to chloride ion attack, and electri-
cal resistivity, resulting in a comparable ductility to that of stan-
dard engineered cementitious composites. It has been reported
that the substitution of high-calcium class C ash can reach a
level of 100% in concretes with good performance in workabil-
ity, short-term strength (27.5 MPa), long-term ultimate strength
(55.2 MPa), and durability (Cross et al. 2005; Berry et al. 2011).
If the above problems can be totally solved, CFA-based con-
cretes will play a greater role in the efficient utilization of CFA.
The challenges, directions, and possible solutions are sum-
marized in Fig. 8.
Conclusion
CFA derived from coal-fired power plants is one of the largest
solid wastes in China causing serious air, water, and soil pol-
lution. Currently, CFA is utilized mainly in paving, mine
backfilling, cement, concrete, and low-end building materials,
which account for about 56% of CFA production. The utiliza-
tion of CFA in China is facing challenges on account of the
regional imbalance in supply and demand, reduced demand
for construction, and stricter environmental laws. Production
of CFA is mainly concentrated in western and northern China,
and the demand is mainly in southeast China so the transpor-
tation cost of CFA can be quite high. The slowdown in the
construction industry and restrictions on cement production
adversely affect the consumption of CFA in China. In re-
sponse to these challenges, new trends/directions in CFA uti-
lization including CFA-based ceramic tile preparation, ele-
ment extraction, agricultural melioration, treatment of waste-
water and flue gas, and high-volume CFA concrete production
are attracting attention from academic and industrial circles.
CFA-based ceramic tiles are expected to become the most
important products after CFA-based cements and concretes
in China in the near future. Furthermore, element extraction,
agricultural melioration, and treatment of wastewater and flue
gas are promising value-adding applications for CFA. High-
volume CFA concrete production is the key to stabilizing the
utilization of CFA. This paper has some guiding significance
18735
for sustainable and cleaner utilization of CFA in China and
even worldwide.
Author contributions Shili Zheng and Paul K. Chu had the idea for the
article.
Yang Luo and Yinghong Wu performed the literature search and data
analysis.
Yang Luo drafted the work.
Shuhua Ma and Yi Zhang critically revised the work.
Funding information The work was funded by the City University of
Hong Kong Strategic Research Grant (SRG) (No. 7005105), Hong
Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) General Research Funds (GRF)
(No. CityU 11205617), National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 51774261), and the Major Science and Technology Project of Inner
Mongolia (Preparation and application of fly ash-based soil conditioner).
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
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