The Possibility to Use Modified Flight Ash as a Neutralizer in the Acid Soils Reclamation Processes

Using the alkaline fly ash after combustion of lignite as the acid soils neutralizer is a technique known for decades. Due to many disadvantages of the direct fly ash application it is sought to modify this material prior to its use. The process of fly ash modification in the magnetic activator involved breaking up fly ash to small grain sizes in order to obtain a material with a very large specific surface and modified properties. The purpose of the research was to compare the properties of unmodified fly ash with those of ash modified in the magnetic activator in terms of its usefulness in the neutralization of acidic soils. Unmodified fly ash was classified as a medium-grained calciferous material. The basic components of ash were silicates (33.28% of SiO2) and calcium compounds (31.26% of CaO). It has a low heavy metal content falling within a range characteristic of coal ash and meeting soil quality standard requirements. As a result of activation, the following changes were obtained in the properties of modified ash compared with unmodified ash: sand fraction content – reduced to 0.40, silt fraction content – increased by 1.40, silt fraction content – increased by 1.68, content of the sum of the dust and silt fractions – increased by 1.49, specific surface – increased by 1.65, fineness – reduced by 0.48. Modification of fly ash in the magnetic activator was found to have improved the physical properties of ash as acidic soil neutralizer, and its chemical properties make such an application possible.