The impact of additives on the retention of heavy metals in the bottom ash during RDF incineration

Abstract Up to now, a few studies on the efficiency of heavy metal(-oid)s capture by a sorbent directly mixed with fuel, have been performed. For this reason, the main objective of the study is to determine whether or not such a solution is effective when RDF is incinerated. The paper presents a two-step analysis of the impact of three sorbents (ammonium sulphate, kaolinite and halloysite) in three dosages (2, 4 and 8 wt%) on heavy metal(-oid)s retention in the bottom ash. 12 heavy metal(-oid)s were taken into consideration - As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, V and Zn. Samples were incinerated in a lab-scale tubular reactor at two temperatures - 900 °C and 1100 °C. The first step of investigation constitutes ICP analysis of heavy metal(-oid)s content in the bottom ash, coupled with SEM/EDS analysis. Afterwards, the second step was to determine the stability of formed additive-heavy metal(-oid)s complexes via leachability tests in neutral and acid environments. The performed research has shown that ammonium sulphate is effective in Cr, Cu and Hg capture, halloysite – in Cd, Co, V and Mn capture, whereas kaolinite – in Pb capture.