Lytag: Light-Weight Aggregate from Pulverised Fuel Ash

Lytag Ltd won the Queen’s Award for ‘innovation in building materials’ for the development of ‘Lytag’, a lightweight aggregate manufactured from the pulverised fuel ash (pfa) produced by a modern power-station. The firm was a wholly-owned small subsidiary of John Laing Ltd, the civil engineering and building corporation, and was set up to manufacture and market ‘Lytag’ which was first commercially produced in 1961. In July 1982 Lytag Ltd was acquired by Pozzolanic Ltd, a firm specialising in quality-assured and monitored fuel ash which is used as a partial substitute for cement in concrete. Three months later Blue Metal Industries, which owned Pozzolanic, was itself taken over by the BORAL group of companies, which had amongst other interests substantial fuelash operations in both Australia and the USA.