The potential of downscaled dynamic column extraction for fast and reliable assessment of natural weathering effects of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ashes

Abstract

There is a current worldwide interest for evaluating the potential reuse of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash as a sub-base in road construction and secondary building material. Yet, there is a need for exploration of the physicochemical features of the bottom ashes to ensure environmental sustainability. To this end, batchwise water extraction as promulgated by the European norm EN 12457 or the German DIN 38414-S4 tests is commonly utilized to ascertain the impact of leachable trace elements in bottom ashes on biota. However, the above extraction protocols are not properly simulating the dynamic extraction conditions occurring in the nature, whereby the analytical information provided for risk assessment is debatable. In this work, a downscaled flow-through extraction method is proposed for mimicking the leaching of hazardous trace elements (namely, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu and Cr) in MSWI bottom ashes by runoff waters more accurately than the manual counterparts. The flow assembly facilitates the full automation of standard and regulatory leaching tests by packing of a suitable amount of solid material into a column, whereupon the leaching reagent is continuously pumped through, thus yielding an accurate assessment of the environmentally significant water-extraction fraction with no effect from readsorption phenomena. The flow-through column system is exploited as a screening tool for fast evaluation of the influence of natural bottom ash weathering on the immobilization of hazardous elements to dictate the potential reuse of the solid waste. The dependence of sorption sites for humic substances on trace element leachability is also discussed. As compared to the steady-state approach, the dynamic method features the substantial shortening of the analytical extraction protocol from 24 h to just 30 min, better precision, with relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) <11% versus >20% R.S.D. for batchwise extraction, improved accuracy because of the absence of metal redistribution phenomena and minimization of manual operations as well as straightforward investigation of leaching rates for the suite of target elements.