Biomass ash streams in Austria

The report depicts the biomass ash flows in Austria as an example for the year 2013 and deals with volumes, treatment pathways and whereabouts. A volume of approximately 200,000 tonnes was estimated. Of these, around 133,000 tonnes are recorded as separately collected volumes in Electronic Data Management, and a final whereabouts of around 126,000 tonnes can be proven. Almost half of this is landfilled, about a third is used in cement plants and about 11% in building materials plants. The ash properties are directly related to the combustion technology and the mass balances of the combined heat and power plants. Fine filter ash is mainly enriched with sulphur, zinc, lead and cadmium. These ashes are not suitable for fertilizing purposes. The soluble content may be so high that surface deposit is not possible.