The behavior of fly-ash derived arsenic in seawater

Abstract

With the rising cost of oil the electric power generating companies are turning to coal as a fuel source. Large amounts of fly ash are produced as a by product of coal combustion. This fly ash must then be disposed of, with the oceans being considered an alternative to land fill disposal. This research investigated the sorptive behavior of the surface-associated arsenic and utilized the results to project arsenic's impact on the water column during the ocean disposal of fly ash. Several acid digests were investigated to determine an effective method of arsenic recovery from fly ash. Of these, the HCl digest was the most effective technique, yielding 100% arsenic recoveries from fly-ash particles. The arsenic content of the fly ashes studied varied from 69 ± 11 μg g −1 to 323 ± 24 μg g −1, reflecting differences in the arsenic content of the source coal. In both seawater and freshwater there is an increase in arsenic desorption with increasing pH. The greatest release of arsenic occurred at pH 12 with generally over 80% of the surface arsenic released. Fly ash in contact with seawater and freshwater can exhibit either acidic or alkaline tendencies depending upon the soluble elemental composition on the surface of the flyash particle. The acidic ashes were shown to leach a greater percentage of arsenic (16.9%) than the more alkaline ashes (8.2%). During these leaching studies in seawater, arsenic was found to leach in both the pentavalent and trivalent oxidation state. The pentavalent state was predominant, comprising 77% of the arsenic initially desorbed. The dissolution in seawater of arsenic was utilized to assess the possible impact of the ocean disposal of fly ash. Based upon these data it appears that the natural levels of arsenic in the water column would not be significantly increased. Further research is needed on the fate of fly-ash particles in marine sediments.