Mechanism of high concentration phosphorus wastewater treated by municipal solid waste incineration fly ash

ZHONG Shan(钟山)¹, GAO Hui(高慧)¹, KUANG Wei(邝薇)¹, LIU Yuan-yuan(刘元元)²

(1. College of Environment and Resources, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China;
2. Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-environmental of Ministry of Education
(Chongqing University), Chongqing 400044, China)

Abstract:The mechanism of removing phosphate by MSWI (municipal solid waste incineration) fly ash was investigated by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) with EDS (energy dispersion spectrum), XRD (X-ray diffraction), FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), BET (specific surface area), and BJH (pore size distribution). The results indicate that the removal rate of phosphate (100 mg/L) in 50 mL phosphorus wastewater reaches at 99.9% as the dosage of MSWI fly ash being 0.9000 g under room temperature. The specific surface area of MSWI fly ash is less than 6.1 m²/g and the total pore volume is below 0.021 cm³/g, suggesting that the absorption capacity of calcite is too weak to play an important role in phosphate removal. SEM images show that drastic changes had taken place on its specific surface shape after reaction, and EDS tests indicate that some phosphate precipitates are formed and attached onto MSWI fly ash particles. Chemical precipitation is the main manner of phosphate removal and the main reaction is: 3Ca²⁺+2 PO₄^3-+xH₂O→Ca₃(PO₄)₂↓•xH₂O. Besides, XRD tests show that the composition of MSWI fly ash is complex, but CaSO₄ is likely to be the main source of Ca²⁺. The soluble heavy metals in MSWI fly ash are stabilized by phosphate.

Key words:MSWI (municipal solid waste incineration) fly ash; phosphorus wastewater; phosphate; mechanism; heavy metal