Novel and Eco Friendly, Lightweight & Thermal Insulating Ceramic from Thermal Power Plant Waste
Team Insulight Ceramics are from Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.
India is heavily dependent on coal for power production. The consumption of coal leads to the production of fly-ash as a by-product. India alone produces fly ash of 169 MT per annum and its non-utilization causes colossal damage to the environment. Insulight Ceramics, have come up with a novel solution to tackle this problem and provides a sustainable and practical alternative to the existing ceramic material. The developed fly ash based ceramic material has super thermal insulation properties and is lightweight at the same time. The density of the developed material is 0.6 g/cc, so that it can float on the water. Its thermal conductivity varies from 0.2-0.6 W/mK which is four to ten times better than that of the existing ceramic materials. Apart from this, it can be molded into any size or shape and also provides good mechanical strength. The raw material, which is fly ash is abundantly available at zero cost. The combination of these desired properties make it an attractive alternative to existing ceramics. Therefore, it can be used for construction, decorative pottery items, industrial or domestic thermal insulation purposes, etc.
Currently, they are developing a ceramic tile by collaborating with Varmora Ceramic Tiles Industry, ceramic tiles manufacturer from Morbi, Gujrat. Apart from Ceramic tiles, they are also exploring the other areas such as industrial thermal insulation and decorative pottery products.
