Determination and Distribution of Heavy Metals in the Municipal Waste Incinerator Slags from Guangdong Province

Abstract

The content of heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Cd, Pb, Zn and Ni) was determined by Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and their distributions were analyzed in various waste incineration slags. The results showed that the particle size less than 5mm were a major component in the slag, which were about 59.42% in all the incineration slags. The content of heavy metals was different in the incineration slags. The content of heavy metals Zn, Cr and Cu were significantly higher than that of other heavy metals and that of Pb was in second, followed by Ni, and that of Cd was in the least. The contents of these heavy metals were higher than that of the soil environmental quality standards (GB15618-1995) and the background values in soil of Guangdong. The distribution of heavy metals in different particles of the slag were very different, in which the content of Cr, Zn, Cd and Ni were higher in the small particle sizes, but that of Cu and Pb was not obvious in various particles. In all, the content and distribution of heavy metals were mainly with composition of the waste and the heavy metal characteristics.