Calstar building case for coal one brick at a time
Fly ash is a nasty substance created during coal combustion. It used to be released into the atmosphere until someone realized putting things like chromium, boron, lead and mercury into the air isn’t necessarily such a good idea.
Instead, we collect it by the ton, either in landfills or at power plant sites. In the U.S., around 131 million tons of the stuff is produced annually each year.
But now companies are finding new uses for fly ash. In fact, around 43 percent of it was reused in 2008 because of companies like CalStar. Reinventing the way bricks are made, CalStar uses steam baths instead of traditional clay bricks, which actually take coal or natural gas energy to power kilns.
Other uses of fly ash include embankment construction, soil stabilization, and concrete. These innovations equate to progress until alternative energies are affordable and adaptable enough to break into the market without a huge amount of government subsidies.
Not only is CalStar using a substance that would likely otherwise sit stagnant in a landfill, the California and Wisconsin based company has found a cleaner way to manufacture bricks.
The company’s Web site says it can actually reduce the amount of energy it takes to make bricks by 85 percent while also reducing CO2 emissions by around 85 percent.
The onset of CalStar bricks may help decrease the use of other less environmentally friendly building materials like fiber cement board and vinyl.
“We love brick and want to safeguard and extend brick masonry as a primary technique within the built environment”, said Mike Kane, building materials veteran and CEO of CalStar Products, Inc.
Green builders will also likely be attracted to CalStar bricks because they will help businesses meet LEED certification standards. This is the kind of business the green industry needs. It not only helps the environment and finds a new use for a toxic byproduct, but it also builds the economy and creates new jobs.
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Here is what goes into Calstar's fly ash bricks.
Here is EPA’s data on the toxic metals emitted by the Oak Creek power plant in fly ash. The data was extracted from EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. Oak Creek produces about 114,000 short tons of fly ash annually. The fly ash contains the following toxics (annual emissions):
Arsenic: 6,657 pounds
Barium: 214,501 pounds
Chromium: 18,000 pounds
Copper: 20,000 pounds
Lead: 4,600 pounds
Manganese: 13,000 pounds
Nickel: 9,000 pounds
Thallium: 10,000 pounds
Vanadium: 4,750 pounds
Zinc: 6,900 pounds
The total amount of toxics contained in Oak Creek’s annual production of fly ash is over 300,000 pounds.
From the above data you can calculate that JUST ONE CALSTAR FLY ASH BRICK (standard size, residential, 5 lbs) WILL CONTAIN OVER 3 GRAMS OF HIGHLY TOXIC METALS.
Oak Creek fly ash on average has the following concentrations of toxics:
Arsenic: 29 ppm
Barium: 941 ppm
Chromium: 79 ppm
Copper: 88 ppm
Lead: 20 ppm
Manganese: 57 ppm
Nickel: 39 ppm
Thallium: 44 ppm
Vanadium: 21 ppm
Zinc: 30 ppm
Compare this with EPA’s regulations on these toxics in drinking water
Arsenic: 0.01 ppm
Barium: 2 ppm
Chromium: 0.1 ppm
Copper: 1.3 ppm
Lead: 0.015 ppm
Thallium: 0.002 ppm
So, the toxics from just ONE FLY ASH BRICK CAN POTENTIALLY POISON OVER 13,000 GALLONS OF WATER and make it unfit for drinking!
Calstar’s SPLP data shows that the leachate contains 0.25 to 0.6 ppb of arsenic. And, the tests are conducted with 20-vols of leaching solution (relative to brick) over a period of 18 h.
So, a standard (5 lb) brick under the same leaching conditions will equate to (0.25 to 0.6) x (5 / 2.2) x (20) = 11.4 to 27.4 ug of arsenic per brick per leaching period (18 h).
So, over one month, the arsenic leaching is (11 to 27) x (24 x 30 / 18) = 456-1,094 ug of arsenic. Taking the mid-range – it is in the region of 800 ug of arsenic per brick per month.
The actual situation may be worse because the leaching of arsenic and other toxics from fly ash can have a significant lag phase (minutes to hours to days) characterized by a low leaching rate, after which leaching increases in a non-linear manner, and then decreases thereafter. This is because of the finite time required for infiltration, the kinetic barriers for reaction, equilibration and leaching from fly ash phases and diffusion controlled transport to the particle surface. So these results may represent the low-level kinetically-inhibited, non-equilibrium phase, and longer-term leaching may uncover the transition to a higher-level quasi-equilibrium state characterized by increased leaching of arsenic.
The main value of the SPLP and TCLP tests is to uncover the toxic hazard.
The fact that the tests show that toxics like arsenic leach, is an immediate and major red flag and indicates a significant health and environmental hazard.
The actual leaching may be much worse and long-term leaching tests (years, in-place, in-the-field) must be done, and the safety of the product proven, before any decision to introduce this product
The toxicity of fly ash bricks is a very serious issue – not one to be so lightly Greenwashed by Calstar.
If the bricks are truly “inert and do not leach” and are “eco-friendly” as Calstar’s CEO Michael Kane and their marketing state, then surely Calstar must be ready to back this up with a lifetime warranty that their fly ash bricks are non-toxic, not a health or environmental hazard and completely safe.
But they will never provide such a guarantee – Calstar knows, contrary to their claims that their bricks are toxic, and they know they cannot guarantee product safety – their own tests show that the bricks leach toxics within just one day.
Some takes from visiting the Calstar booth at Greenbuild and examining their bricks.
The fly ash bricks look very different to clay bricks – even from a distance. Up close, they have a whitish bloom which rubs off.
Edge hardness is poor and seams are porous and friable. Dimensions and edge/face structure are variable.
Color is variable with pigment bleed around grain structure – since the coloring is from oxide pigment additions rather than firing.
The bricks show water beading and mortar pullback – typical of masonry impregnated with water repellents/efflorescence control agents.
Despite the additives, you still see salt migration – as pinhole breakthroughs, bleeding/staining and salt banding around sand grains and at the mortar joints.
Calstar’s CEO – Michael Kane has jumped ship.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Boral-appoints-US-division-president-pd20100204-2BTYV?OpenDocument&src=hp14
In a striking and ironic refutal of Calstar’s fly ash brick product, Kane has moved to Boral, the largest clay brick producer in the US.
So much for Calstar’s “Green” and “Eco-friendly” fly ash bricks. Even Calstar’s own CEO did not believe Calstar’s hype and greenwashing.
Obviously Kane sees much better better prospects at Boral. Boral is a solid company with excellent products, including clay bricks, cement block and a range of building products made with fly ash. Quite the change from Calstar’s greenwash operations.
Damage control time for Calstar.
Where is Calstar’s Product Warranty for their fly ash bricks?
Calstar is claiming a “brick” product that is better than clay brick, so it must have a better warranty?
Clay bricks have lifetime or 100 year warranties.
So where is Calstar’s warranty? No sign of it anywhere. No mention of a warranty or any sort of product guarantee.
Maybe there is no warranty because, in the words of Calstar’s Product Manager – Julie Rapoport, their brick is a “a prototype product that has not been field tested over an extended period” (this from (http://calstarproducts.com/wp-content/themes/default/pdf/ConstructionSpecifier_0809.pdf).
Since Calstar just started production in February, I guess that Rapoport’s idea of “extended period” is anything over one month.
So no product warranty for Calstar’s “Green” and “Eco-friendly” fly ash bricks?
Can Calstar provide any sort of warranty for their product?
A warranty that it will not fade, flake, effloresce.?
A warranty that it will not leach toxic metals?
A warranty that it will not poison people or the environment?
A warranty that it will not crumble into dust after the first frost?
Any warranty? Anything? 10 years? 1 year?
No warranty from Calstar? So what does the builder do? What does the homeowner do?
Oh, of course, there is no warranty for a experimental “prototype product”! Use Calstar’s fly ash bricks at your own risk! No implied product warranty!
That is strange. Clay bricks carry a 100 year or lifetime warranty.
Here is a question for Calstar’s Product Manager – Julie Rapoport.
Where is the product warranty to back up all of your unproven performance claims for your “prototype” product?
And the response from Calstar - to quote: "100-year warranty? Haven’t you read? The world is coming to an end in 2012".
Calstar - the Greenwash Brick company.
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