Temperature and pH Dependence of Some Metals Leaching from Fly Ash of Municipal Solid Waste

Abstract. Municipal solid waste combustion leads to concentration of various metals in the solid residue (fly ash) remaining after combustion. These metals pose serious environmental hazard and require proper handling and monitoring in order to control their harmful effects. Leachability of some metals from fly ash was examined in fly ash and Milli-Q water mixture (liquid-to-solid ratio, 100) under various temperature and pH conditions in the laboratory. The leaching experiments conducted for 24 hours showed that pH was generally more important than temperature in controlling the amount of metals leached out of the fly ash. However, at a given pH, rise in temperature led to different degree of (usually one to two fold) enhanced or reduced leaching of metals. Owing to amphoteric nature of oxides of Al, Cr, Pb and Zn, these metals often yielded typical pattern of increase and decrease in their concentrations with change in pH. The extent of leaching of Cr and Pb in our experiments suggests that decrease of pH to acidic range in the case of Pb and to neutral to acidic range for Cr over a long period of storage of fly ash at solid waste dumping site may facilitate leaching of these metals from fly ash, leading to contamination of groundwater to the level that exceeds beyond the level permitted by the environmental laws.