Rapid reduction of lead leachate from hazardous fly ash using microwave treatment with acid combination.

The novelty of this study is to rapidly reduce hazardous lead leachates from solid waste using microwave digestion treatment, which is an energy-saving and low greenhouse gas emission technology. The article presents the reduction of toxic characteristic leaching procedure-extractable lead concentration in the municipal solid waste incineration fly ash by the microwave digestion treatment in HNO3/H2SO4 combination, and focuses on the effects of treatment time and temperature. The results obtained from this study indicated a significant reduction efficiency of toxic characteristic leaching procedure-extractable lead concentration and showed sufficient reduction in leaching levels to render the treated fly ash safe in lead compound leaching characteristics. The reduction efficiency of toxic characteristic leaching procedure-extractable lead concentration can reach 98% in 15 minutes of treatment time. This is equivalent to the original toxic characteristic leaching procedure-extractable lead concentration of 46.2 mg L(-1) in raw fly ash being reduced down to less than 1.0 mg L(-1). Based on the experimental data obtained in this study, a useful correlation between reduction efficiency and treatment conditions is proposed. For engineering applications, the necessary minimum treatment time is solved using a graphic illustration method, by which the minimum treatment time (t(min)) is obtained if the desired reduction efficiency (η) and treatment temperature (T) are known. The effects of treatment time and temperature are discussed. Some problems caused by the microwave digestion treatment method are also delineated in this article.

Elutriation characteristics of fine particles from bubbling fluidized bed incineration for sludge cake treatment.

In this study, measurements of elutriation rate were carried out in a bench scale bubbling fluidized bed incinerator, which was used to combust sludge cake. The particle size distribution and ignition loss were analyzed to study the elutriation characteristics of bubbling fluidized bed incineration. Drawn from the experimental data, the elutriation rate constant K(i)* for fine particles were obtained and correlated with parameters. It was found that most of the solid particles (about 95%) elutriated came from the fluidized medium (inorganic matters), but few came from unburned carbon particles or soot (about 5%). Finally, this paper lists a comparison of K(i)* between this study and the published prediction equations derived or studied in non-incineration modes of fluidized bed. A new and modified correlation is proposed here to estimate the elutriation rate of fine particles emitted from a bubbling fluidized bed incinerator. Primary operation variables (superficial gas velocity and incineration temperature) affecting the elutriation rate are also discussed in the paper.