AccScience Publishing / EER / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/eer.4609
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Enhanced inhibition of heavy metal leaching in incineration bottom ash through accelerated carbonation with ammonium carbonate

Suming Ye1 ,  Roy Ou Yong1 ,  Jie Bu1 ,  Cun Wang1*
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1 Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment, A*STAR, Singapore
EER 2024, 1(1), 4609 https://doi.org/10.36922/eer.4609
Submitted: 21 August 2024 | Accepted: 14 October 2024 | Published: 8 November 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

The increasing generation of incineration bottom residues poses environmental risks due to heavy metal leaching, while carbonation is one of the effective methods to immobilize heavy metals. This study introduces a novel approach to mitigate heavy metal leaching from incineration bottom ash (IBA) by accelerated carbonation with ammonium carbonate solution. The effect of ammonium carbonate concentration on carbonation efficiency and inhibition of heavy metal leaching was systematically investigated. X-ray fluorescence was used to analyze the composition of IBA, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy/mass spectrometry were used to determine carbonation capacity and heavy metal leaching, respectively. Results showed that maximum carbonation capacity was achieved at 8 wt% ammonium carbonate concentration at a solid/liquid ratio of 1:5 for 1 h, but the increase in carbonation efficiency slowed down when the concentration exceeded 4 wt%. Ammonium carbonate accelerated carbonation effectively inhibited heavy metal leaching, particularly copper, with an 89% inhibition rate at 10 wt% ammonium carbonate, while diminished effects were observed with chromiun. The effect of the ammonium carbonate concentration on heavy metal inhibition became less significant above 4 wt%, revealing a nuanced relationship between carbonation and heavy metal leaching inhibition. TGA and X-ray diffraction analyses confirmed the formation of insoluble CaCO3 during carbonation, elucidating neomineralization processes that immobilize trace heavy metals. In addition, the study explored the impact of carbonation on leachate pH, emphasizing the interplay between pH reduction and heavy metal leaching inhibition.

Keywords
Municipal solid waste
Incineration bottom ash
Accelerated carbonation
Heavy metal leaching
Ammonium carbonate
Funding
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under the Low-Carbon Energy Research Funding Initiative (LCER FI) program (Project U2102d2008).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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