Bioleaching of Heavy Metals from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash: Availability of Recoverable Sulfur Prills and Form Transformation of Heavy Metals

Abstract

Bioleaching is an effective and promising approach for the recovery or removal of heavy metals from metal-laden municipal solid waste incineration fly ash. To exclude the risk of reacidification of the leached fly ash after bioleaching with sulfur powder, molded sulfur prills were used as energy substrate for sulfur oxidizing bacteria to examine the availability of reusing the recyclable sulfur forms. The chemical species of heavy metals during the bioleaching process were also investigated. Results showed that the pH reduction, sulfate production, and metal solubilization with sulfur prills were comparable to that with sulfur powder despite of the theoretically calculated smaller surface of the formers. After 15 days of bioleaching, 80.7–82.1% of Cd, 72.5–74.1% of Zn, 42.8–43.9% of Cu, 24.1–25.2% of Cr, and 12.4–13.0% of Pb were removed from the fly ash, respectively. During bioleaching, heavy metals in the acid extractable and reducible fraction were significantly removed, and metals in oxidizable from were partially reduced. The low leaching toxicity of heavy metals according to toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) verified the effective detoxification of fly ash. Moreover, the comparable pH reduction and metal removal efficiencies of bioleaching process with recycled sulfur prills to that with fresh sulfur revealed the potential of reusing the recoverable sulfur prills in the bioleaching process for decontamination of heavy metals from municipal solid waste fly ash.