Urban waste flows and their potential for a circular economy model at city-region level.

To enable cities to become more circular, i.e. close material cycles, decision-makers need detailed data about the production and treatment of waste. At city level, conventional statistics on waste are often incomplete or lack detail. Waste input-output accounting offers an alternative, using waste supply and use tables to create detailed inventories of economy-wide flows of waste. In this study we develop such tables for the city-region of Brussels (Belgium) and use them to analyse the urban waste metabolism in terms of waste flows, waste production intensity and waste treatment performance. The waste flow analysis revealed: the amount of collected waste; the proportion contributed by individual sectors; the material composition of waste flows and the location of treatment. Currently, around 50% of the 1.5 million tons of waste collected in Brussels is treated in local facilities. However, less than 1% of the collected waste is used in a way that closes material cycles within city limits. The waste performance analysis reveals that the construction sector had the highest waste production intensity and the household sector the highest incineration intensity. In terms of waste prevention and local valorisation potential, we identified flows and sectors for future targeting, one of the most promising being food waste. We conclude that the urban context can restrict the local valorisation of waste flows, thus we see the role of cities such as Brussels in a circular economy as mainly contributing to the closing of material cycles at national or even global level.

Combining sieving and washing, a way to treat MSWI boiler fly ash.

Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) fly ashes contain some compounds that could be extracted and valorised. A process based on wet sieving and washing steps has been developed aiming to reach this objective. Such unique combination in MSWI fly ash treatment led to a non-hazardous fraction from incineration fly ashes. More specifically, MSWI Boiler Fly Ash (BFA) was separately sampled and treated. The BFA finer particles (13wt%) were found to be more contaminated in Pb and Zn than the coarser fractions. After three washing steps, the coarser fractions presented leaching concentrations acceptable to landfill for non-hazardous materials so that an eventual subsequent valorisation may be foreseen. At the contrary, too much Pb leached from the finest particles and this fraction should be further treated. Wet sieving and washing permit thus to reduce the leachability of MSWI BFA and to concentrate the Pb and Zn contamination in a small (in particle size and volume) fraction. Such combination would therefore constitute a straightforward and efficient basis to valorise coarse particles from MSWI fly ashes.

Carbonation of municipal solid waste incineration electrostatic precipitator fly ashes in solution.

Carbonation was applied to a Pb- and Zn-contaminated fraction of municipal solid waste incineration electrofilter fly ashes in order to reduce heavy metal leaching. Carbonation tests were performed in solution, by Na2CO3 addition or CO2 bubbling, and were compared with washing (with water only). The injection of CO2 during the washing did not modify the mineralogy, but the addition of Na2CO3 induced the reaction with anhydrite, forming calcite. Microprobe analyses showed that Pb and Zn contamination was rather diffuse and that the various treatments had no effect on Pb and Zn speciation in the residues. The leaching tests indicated that carbonation using Na2CO3 was successful because it gave a residue that could be considered as non-hazardous material. With CO2 bubbling, Pb and Zn leaching was strongly decreased compared with material washed with water alone, but the amount of chromium extracted became higher than the non-hazardous waste limits for landfilling.

Belgian MSWI fly ashes and APC residues: a characterisation study.

Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) produces different sorts of residues, bottom ash, fly ashes and Air Pollution Control (APC) residues. Generally, fly ashes and APC residues are mixed at the MSWI plant and manage as a sole residue. In this study, fly ashes and APC residues have been sampled separately at different Belgian MSWI plant and analysed by X-ray fluorescence in order to highlight the composition differences that may appear between the solids. Ca and Cl are found to be the major elements in most of the samples. Lithophilic elements, such as Al and Si, are richer in furnace and boiler ashes, as can be expected. Leaching tests also show differences between the residues; leachates from furnace and boiler ashes are alkaline while those from bag filter residues present a pH value of 6, which impacts the leaching of heavy metals (Pb and Zn). The results suggest that it could be advantageous to manage fly ashes and APC residues separately by adjusting the treatment to their specificities.

MSWI boiler fly ashes: magnetic separation for material recovery.

Nowadays, ferrous materials are usually recovered from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) bottom ash by magnetic separation. To our knowledge, such a physical technique has not been applied so far to other MSWI residues. This study focuses thus on the applicability of magnetic separation on boiler fly ashes (BFA). Different types of magnet are used to extract the magnetic particles. We investigate the magnetic particle composition, as well as their leaching behaviour (EN 12457-1 leaching test). The magnetic particles present higher Cr, Fe, Mn and Ni concentration than the non-magnetic (NM) fraction. Magnetic separation does not improve the leachability of the NM fraction. To approximate industrial conditions, magnetic separation is also applied to BFA mixed with water by using a pilot. BFA magnetic separation is economically evaluated. This study globally shows that it is possible to extract some magnetic particles from MSWI boiler fly ashes. However, the magnetic particles only represent from 23 to 120 g/kg of the BFA and, though they are enriched in Fe, are composed of similar elements to the raw ashes. The industrial application of magnetic separation would only be profitable if large amounts of ashes were treated (more than 15 kt/y), and the process should be ideally completed by other recovery methods or advanced treatments.