Legal situation and current practice of waste incineration bottom ash utilisation in Europe.

Almost 500 municipal solid waste incineration plants in the EU, Norway and Switzerland generate about 17.6 Mt/a of incinerator bottom ash (IBA). IBA contains minerals and metals. Metals are mostly separated and sold to the scrap market and minerals are either disposed of in landfills or utilised in the construction sector. Since there is no uniform regulation for IBA utilisation at EU level, countries developed own rules with varying requirements for utilisation. As a result from a cooperation network between European experts an up-to-date overview of documents regulating IBA utilisation is presented. Furthermore, this work highlights the different requirements that have to be considered. Overall, 51 different parameters for the total content and 36 different parameters for the emission by leaching are defined. An analysis of the defined parameter reveals that leaching parameters are significantly more to be considered compared to total content parameters. In order to assess the leaching behaviour nine different leaching tests, including batch tests, up-flow percolation tests and one diffusion test (monolithic materials) are in place. A further discussion of leaching parameters showed that certain countries took over limit values initially defined for landfills for inert waste and adopted them for IBA utilisation. The overall utilisation rate of IBA in construction works is approximately 54 wt%. It is revealed that the rate of utilisation does not necessarily depend on how well regulated IBA utilisation is, but rather seems to be a result of political commitment for IBA recycling and economically interesting circumstances.

Optimizing large-scale ageing of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash prior to the advanced metal recovery: Phase I: Monitoring of temperature, moisture content, and CO2 level.

Development of temperature, CO2 level, and moisture was followed during several months of outdoor ageing of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash (IBA) in seventeen 5000-ton piles, in order to obtain input data for possible optimization of the ageing process in terms of faster/better drying prior to the metal recovery operation. In addition, measured thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of IBA were combined with calculated thermal output and used as input to a model originally developed for accessing temperature development in hardening concrete structures. The results show that the temperature in pile's core increased to 90-94 °C in two-three weeks and remained stable for at least another month. The temperatures in the outer 80 cm of the pile were shown to be affected by outside temperatures while effects of precipitation on temperature development were shown in the upper 50 cm. The used thermal model described the observed temperatures in large part of the pile well; however, it failed to describe the temperature level observed towards the top of the pile. This may be caused by an unaccounted transport process. The CO2 measured inside the pile was constantly at "zero-level" thus indicating an incomplete carbonation. The moisture content was found to decrease during the ageing; however, significantly better data needs to be gathered especially for the period after the quenching, where the largest variation seemed to take place. The leaching of chloride, sulfate, Na, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from all IBA samples was shown to comply with the leaching limit values for Category 3; i.e. the IBA was found suitable for utilization in e.g. an unbound subbase of a road or a parking space. For the next phase of this project an optimized treatment was proposed which is based on using a telescopic radial stacker allowing construction of a less-compacted, higher/steeper pile with a smaller footprint which may further improve air transport through the pile, prevent excessive infiltration of precipitation, and save facility space. In addition, all ferrous material will be purposely left inside the aging piles in order to facilitate the temperature increase and to shorten the total drying time prior to the advanced metal recovery.

Leaching behaviour of incineration bottom ash in a reuse scenario: 12years-field data vs. lab test results.

Several types of standardized laboratory leaching tests have been developed during the past few decades to evaluate the leaching behaviour of waste materials as a function of different parameters, such as the pH of the eluate and the liquid to solid ratio. However, the link between the results of these tests and leaching data collected from the field (e.g. in disposal or reuse scenarios) is not always straightforward. In this work, we compare data obtained from an on-going large scale field trial, in which municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash is being tested as road sub-base material, with the results obtained from percolation column and pH-dependence laboratory leaching tests carried out on the bottom ash at the beginning of the test. The comparisons reported in this paper show that for soluble substances (e.g. Cl, K and SO4), percolation column tests can provide a good indication of the release expected in the field with deviations usually within a factor of 3. For metals characterized by a solubility-controlled release, i.e. that depends more on eluate pH than the liquid to solid ratio applied, the results of pH-dependence tests describe more accurately the eluate concentration trends observed in the field with deviations that in most cases (around 80%) are within one order of magnitude (see e.g. Al and Cd). The differences between field and lab-scale data might be in part ascribed to the occurrence in the field of weathering reactions (e.g. carbonation) but also to microbial decomposition of organic matter that modifying leachate pH affect the solubility of several constituents (e.g. Ca, Ba and Cr). Besides, weathering reactions can result in enhanced adsorption of fulvic acids to iron/aluminum (hydr)oxides, leading to a decrease in the leaching of fulvic acids and hence of elements such as Cu, Ni and Pb that strongly depend on DOC leaching. Overall, this comparison shows that percolation column tests and pH-dependence tests can represent a reliable screening tool to derive data that could be employed in risk-based analysis or life cycle assessment (LCA) frameworks for evaluating potential environmental impacts deriving from specific disposal/reuse options for waste materials.

Hazard property classification of waste according to the recent propositions of the EC using different methods.

Hazard classification of waste is a necessity, but the hazard properties (named "H" and soon "HP") are still not all defined in a practical and operational manner at EU level. Following discussion of subsequent draft proposals from the Commission there is still no final decision. Methods to implement the proposals have recently been proposed: tests methods for physical risks, test batteries for aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicity, an analytical package for exhaustive determination of organic substances and mineral elements, surrogate methods for the speciation of mineral elements in mineral substances in waste, and calculation methods for human toxicity and ecotoxicity with M factors. In this paper the different proposed methods have been applied to a large assortment of solid and liquid wastes (>100). Data for 45 wastes - documented with extensive chemical analysis and flammability test - were assessed in terms of the different HP criteria and results were compared to LoW for lack of an independent classification. For most waste streams the classification matches with the designation provided in the LoW. This indicates that the criteria used by LoW are similar to the HP limit values. This data set showed HP 14 'Ecotoxic chronic' is the most discriminating HP. All wastes classified as acute ecotoxic are also chronic ecotoxic and the assessment of acute ecotoxicity separately is therefore not needed. The high number of HP 14 classified wastes is due to the very low limit values when stringent M factors are applied to total concentrations (worst case method). With M factor set to 1 the classification method is not sufficiently discriminating between hazardous and non-hazardous materials. The second most frequent hazard is HP 7 'Carcinogenic'. The third most frequent hazard is HP 10 'Toxic for reproduction' and the fourth most frequent hazard is HP 4 "Irritant - skin irritation and eye damage". In a stepwise approach, it seems relevant to assess HP 14 first, then, if the waste is not classified as hazardous, to assess subsequently HP 7, HP 10 and HP 4, and then if still not classified as hazardous, to assess the remaining properties. The elements triggering the HP 14 classification in order of importance are Zn, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd and Hg. Progress in the speciation of Zn and Cu is essential for HP 14. Organics were quantified by the proposed method (AFNOR XP X30-489) and need no speciation. Organics can contribute significantly to intrinsic toxicity in many waste materials, but they are only of minor importance for the assessment of HP 14 as the metal concentrations are the main HP 14 classifiers. Organic compounds are however responsible for other toxicological characteristics (hormone disturbance, genotoxicity, reprotoxicity…) and shall be taken into account when the waste is not HP 14 classified.

Utilisation of MSWI bottom ash as sub-base in road construction: first results from a large-scale test site.

The preferred management option for municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) bottom ash in Denmark is utilisation rather than landfilling, but the current environmental quality criteria for bottom ash to be utilised in bulk quantities are rather strict. To evaluate the impact and risk assessments, upon which those criteria are based, a large-scale test site has been established. Three different MSWI bottom ashes have been used as sub-base in six test units ranging from 100 to 200 m2 with top covers of asphalt, flagstones and pebbles, respectively. All units, except one, are equipped with bottom liners and leachate collection equipment. The test site provides information on the leachate quality and quantity as a function of time under different conditions and on the flow pattern in asphalt and flagstone covered roads and squares with MSWI bottom ash sub-base. In addition, the leaching behaviour of the bottom ashes has been studied in the laboratory. The test site was established in October 2002 and the project is still ongoing. Water balance results indicate that the water flow distribution is strongly influenced by lateral flow on or in the upper part of the bottom ash layer and possibly by preferential flow. Comparisons between eluates from laboratory leaching tests on the bottom ashes and observations of the leachate from the site as a function of L/S show fairly good agreement for salts but less agreement for some trace elements. Most likely, this is partly due to the fact that the pH observed in the leachate from the field sites is lower than that observed in the eluates from the laboratory leaching tests.

Assessment of long-term pH developments in leachate from waste incineration residues.

Environmental assessment of residue disposal needs to account for long-term changes in leaching conditions. Leaching of heavy metals from incineration residues are highly affected by the leachate pH; the overall environmental consequences of disposing of these residues are therefore greatly influenced by changes in pH over time. The paper presents an approach for assessing pH changes in leachate from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) air-pollution-control (APC) residues. Residue samples were subjected to a stepwise batch extraction method in order to obtain residue samples at a range of pH values (similar to common pH-dependence tests), and then on these samples to determine leaching of alkalinity as well as remaining solid phase alkalinity. On a range of APC residues covering various pretreatment and disposal options, this procedure was used to determine leachable and residual alkalinity as a function of pH. Mass balance calculations for typical disposal scenarios were used to provide data on pH as a function of the liquid-to-solid (L/S) ratio in the leaching system. Regardless of residue type and pretreatment, pH was found to stay above 7 for L/S ratios up to about 2000 L kg(-1) corresponding to about 100,000 years in typical landfill scenarios. It was found that pH changes were mainly governed by alkalinity decreases from leaching processes rather than neutralization reactions. The results suggest that leaching testing for assessment purposes should be carried out in the alkaline range, for example, at pH 9. The paper offers a thorough basis for further modelling of incineration residue leaching and for modelling the environmental consequences of landfilling and utilization of these residues.