Western Ash Inc. was brought together by an experienced management team to develop and market beneficiated ash to Western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest concrete industry.
Our goal is to develop high quality ash for the concrete industry and to deliver consistent and reliable supply to our customers.
Fly ash is a very fine dust like byproduct from burning pulverized coal in power plants captured by electrostatic precipitators. It comprises roughly 60 percent of coal combustion waste.
Bottom ash is the coarser, granular, by-product that is collected from the bottom of the furnace.
The components of ash vary considerably depending on the source and composition of the coal being burned, but all ash includes substantial amounts of silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide and calcium oxide, which are the noncombustible main mineral compounds in coal.
Beneficiated ash essentially blends bottom ash with fly ash by milling the granular bottom ash to match the much more powder like consistency of fly ash and drying it to specification.
The most recent editions of ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) and CSA (Canadian Standards Association) standards for coal ash Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCM) enable industry sourcing and reprocessing coal ash from ash piles above and below grade. This was required due to the loss of live coal ash volumes produced from coal power stations as plants retired or were converted to natural gas in the early 2020s.
The management team brings together a broad spectrum of expertise with vast backgrounds including experience in the ash market. Some of this expertise includes: