Flyash pollution is caused by

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Thermal power plant. Fly ash is the fine, glassy residue produced when pulverised coal is burnt in coal-fired thermal power stations; it is carried upward with the flue gases and captured by electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) before the gas leaves the chimney. Because coal-based thermal plants burn enormous quantities of coal, they are the dominant source of fly-ash pollution in India — the ash carries silica, alumina and toxic trace elements (arsenic, mercury, cadmium) and, if unmanaged, contaminates air, land and water.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Refineries process crude oil, not coal; their characteristic wastes are petroleum coke, oily sludge, spent catalysts and gaseous emissions (SO2, VOCs) — not fly ash, which comes from coal combustion.  (b) Fertilizer plants generate effluents, phosphogypsum and gaseous emissions (ammonia, fluorides); they do not burn pulverised coal to produce fly ash.  (d) Mining generates overburden, tailings, dust and acid mine drainage. Coal mining moves and extracts coal but does not combust it — and fly ash is a product of burning coal, not of mining it.

Concept: Coal combustion in a thermal power plant leaves two ash fractions — the light 'fly' ash that rises with the flue gas (trapped by electrostatic precipitators) and the heavier 'bottom ash' that settles in the furnace. Fly ash is a major solid-waste and air-pollution challenge, but it is also a resource: it is used to make fly-ash bricks and to partially replace Portland cement in concrete, and its handling is governed by MoEFCC fly-ash utilisation notifications.

State PCS 2021 Q11 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q11 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer