Controlling reactions during heavy metal leaching from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash

Abstract

This research aimed to characterize the physical and chemical properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration fly ash, as well as to investigate the leaching of heavy metals during toxicity characteristics leaching procedure (TCLP) process. To understand the leaching behaviour, concentrations of heavy metals, chloride, sulphate and calcium at various leaching, time was monitored together with pH of the leaching solution. Results showed that the chemical compositions of fly ashes led to differences in leaching environment. For the two fly ashes under study, one resulted in a leaching environment with pH of 10?12 while the other had pH about 6?7. Based on pH, anions and cations concentrations, Minteq software was employed to investigate the speciation of heavy metals. Results showed that the shift in precipitation/dissolution balance of carbonate and hydroxides of heavy metals could explain the fluctuation in metal concentrations during the leaching process, which indicates that leaching was probably controlled by these reactions. On the other hand, addition of EDTA changed the controlling reactions. Chelating reactions between heavy metals and EDTA led to much higher leaching toxicity due to the presence of heavy metals, showing that the presence of chelating organics in natural environment may facilitate heavy metal leaching.