Trading one waste for another? Unintended consequences of fly ash reuse in the Indian electric power sector

Archana Ghodeswar; Matthew E. Oliver

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112940

Trading one waste for another? Unintended consequences of fly ash reuse in the Indian electric power sector

Archana Ghodeswar, Matthew E. Oliver

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the direct consequences of waste by-product reuse in a polluting industry, namely, India's coal-fired electric power sector, where ‘fly ash’ is legally required to be used as a substitute input in other industries. We first develop a simple theoretical model to gain insight and derive testable hypotheses applicable to our specific empirical setting. We provide empirical support for our model's predictions by exploiting plant-level variation in fly ash utilization. Results indicate greater reuse of fly ash per kWh of generation increases coal consumption per kWh, reduces the quality of coal used, and increases plant-level CO₂ emissions per kWh. These results suggest the potential benefits of this policy—e.g., reduced waste disposal costs—may be offset by unanticipated increases in other external costs, particularly if not accompanied by supplementary regulation of other forms of pollution.

Original language	English
Article number	112940
Journal	Energy Policy
Volume	165
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112940
State	Published - Jun 2022
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This research was conducted as part of A. Ghodeswar's economics PhD dissertation at Georgia Institute of Technology (USA). During this time, A. Ghodeswar maintained her status of employment by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (India), but was officially on unpaid sabbatical leave to complete her economics PhD. Her PhD studies were funded by the Maharashtra state government under the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Overseas Higher Education Scholarship program. Neither the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. nor the Maharashtra state government had any influence over, or interest in, the methods, content, or findings of the research contained in this manuscript. Coauthor M.E. Oliver claims no known conflicts of interests related to this research. We are grateful to Elena Antoniadou, Tibor Besede?, Dylan Brewer, Marilyn Brown, Shatakshee Dhongde, Tony Harding, Ed Manderson, Swapnil Motghare, Usha Nair-Reichert, Laura Taylor, Eve Tsybina, Casey Wichman, and Karen Yan for several helpful suggestions and comments. This research was presented at the 88th International Atlantic Economic Conference (October 2019, Miami, FL) and the 31st Ivan Allen College Graduate Student Conference at Georgia Tech (January 2020, Atlanta, GA). We thank participants of those events for their insightful feedback. Finally, we thank MahaGenco and Pravin Jani (Fly Ash Common Facility Center, Chandrapur, India) for the insightful discussions on the practical waste disposal and utilization practices from the field.

Keywords

CO emissions
Coal power plant
Fly ash
Industrial ecology
Solid waste
Sustainability

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112940

Cite this

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abstract = "In this paper, we examine the direct consequences of waste by-product reuse in a polluting industry, namely, India's coal-fired electric power sector, where {\textquoteleft}fly ash{\textquoteright} is legally required to be used as a substitute input in other industries. We first develop a simple theoretical model to gain insight and derive testable hypotheses applicable to our specific empirical setting. We provide empirical support for our model's predictions by exploiting plant-level variation in fly ash utilization. Results indicate greater reuse of fly ash per kWh of generation increases coal consumption per kWh, reduces the quality of coal used, and increases plant-level CO2 emissions per kWh. These results suggest the potential benefits of this policy—e.g., reduced waste disposal costs—may be offset by unanticipated increases in other external costs, particularly if not accompanied by supplementary regulation of other forms of pollution.",

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AB - In this paper, we examine the direct consequences of waste by-product reuse in a polluting industry, namely, India's coal-fired electric power sector, where ‘fly ash’ is legally required to be used as a substitute input in other industries. We first develop a simple theoretical model to gain insight and derive testable hypotheses applicable to our specific empirical setting. We provide empirical support for our model's predictions by exploiting plant-level variation in fly ash utilization. Results indicate greater reuse of fly ash per kWh of generation increases coal consumption per kWh, reduces the quality of coal used, and increases plant-level CO2 emissions per kWh. These results suggest the potential benefits of this policy—e.g., reduced waste disposal costs—may be offset by unanticipated increases in other external costs, particularly if not accompanied by supplementary regulation of other forms of pollution.

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Trading one waste for another? Unintended consequences of fly ash reuse in the Indian electric power sector

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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