R. Chaudhry, T. Schroeter, Clyde Bergemann Materials Handling Ltd, Doncaster, UK

 Due to various environmental, legislative and water resource constraints there has been a shift from wet to dry ash handling technologies in thermal power plants world over. There are a number of benefits in using dry ash handling, the most prominent being huge reduction in water consumption and significantly lower operational expenditure. This eliminates the need for ash lagoons, water storage, recirculation and treatment systems resulting in lower impact on the environment. Ash obtained from a dry system is also easier to utilise for production of cement, mortars etc.