Abstract
In the present work, thermal treatment was used to stabilize municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash, which was considered hazardous waste. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) results indicated that, after the thermal process, the leaching concentrations of Pb, Cu, and Zn decreased from 8.08 to 0.16 mg/L, 0.12 to 0.017 mg/L and 0.39 to 0.1 mg/L, respectively, which well met the limits in GB5085.3-2007 and GB16689-2008. Thermal treatment showed a negative effect on the leachability of Cr with concentrations increasing from 0.1 to 1.28 mg/L; nevertheless, it was still under the limitations. XRD analysis suggested that, after thermal treatments, CaO was newly generated. CaO was a main contribution to higher Cr leaching concentrations owing to the formation of Cr (VI)—compounds such as CaCrO4. SEM/EDS tests revealed that particle adhesion, agglomeration, and grain growth happened during the thermal process and thus diminished the leachability of Pb, Cu, and Zn, but these processes had no significant influence on the leaching of Cr. A microbial assay demonstrated that all thermally treated samples yet possessed strong bactericidal activity according to optical density (OD) test results. Among all samples, the OD value of raw fly ash (RFA) was lowest followed by FA700-10, FA900-10, and FA1100-10 in an increasing order, which indicated that the sequence of the biotoxicity for these samples was RFA > FA700-10 > FA900-10 > FA1100-10. This preliminary study indicated that, apart from TCLP criteria, the biotoxicity assessment was indispensable for evaluating the effect of thermal treatment for MSWI fly ash.
Highlights
Due to the marked rise in economy and population, billions of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated annually worldwide, and the amount is soaring [1]
municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash samples were collected from a waste-to-energy plant with an incineration capacity of 1800 tons per day located in Chengdu, China
These samples were denoted as follows: raw fly ash (RFA), FA700-10, FA900-10, and FA1100-10, respectively
Summary
Due to the marked rise in economy and population, billions of tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated annually worldwide, and the amount is soaring [1]. Traditional disposal of MSW in landfills has induced severe deterioration of quality of air, underground water, public health, etc. Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) is considered the most effective alternative to the landfill disposal of MSW. MSWI can considerably reduce the volume and weight of solid waste by 90% and 70%, respectively, and realize energy recovery and disinfection [3]. The generation of fly ash during the combustion process is another big nuisance, which poses a grave. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 626; doi:10.3390/ijerph14060626 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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