Stabilization of Chromium Waste by Solidification into Cement Composites

Abstract

This article deals with the study of hazardous chromium leaching, stabilized/solidified by cement CEM II after 28 days of curing, in an acidic environment. The mortars subjected to this study were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization to evaluate the influence of chromium waste on their mineralogical structure. In the study range (0.6–1.2%), increasing the mass percentage of Cr2O3 in the mortars indicates that chromium accelerates the hydration process and setting of the mortar and increases the mechanical strength of the mortars compared to the control sample. It was observed that the release of chromium during the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test and the efficiency of the stabilization/solidification process depended on the initial Cr concentration and the leaching time. The use of XRD allowed the identification of new crystallized phases in the cement matrices, namely, CaCrO4·2H2O and chromium–ettringite Ca6Cr2(SO4)3(OH)12·26H2O, which confirms the immobilization of chromium and the efficiency of the stabilization/solidification process. In this research, the release mechanism was found to be primarily a surface phenomenon by modeling the experimental data (dissolution or precipitation).