Coating concrete destined to rebuild America's crumbling bridges
and roadways with some of the millions of tons of ash left over
from burning coal could extend the life of those structures by
decades, saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money,
scientists reported here today at the 241st National Meeting &
Exposition of the American Chemical Society. They reported on a
new coating material for concrete made from flyash that is
hundreds of times more durable than existing coatings and costs
only half as much. Study leader Charles Carraher, Ph.D.,
explained that the more than 450 coal-burning electric power
plants in the United States produce about 130 million tons of
"flyash" each year. Before air pollution laws, those fine
particles of soot and dust flew up smokestacks and into the air.
Power plants now collect the ash. "Flyash poses enormous waste
disposal problems," Carraher said. "Some of it does get recycled
and reused. But almost 70 percent winds up in landfills every
year, where space is increasingly