Speciation of Cr and V within BOF steel slag reused in road constructions

Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) steel slag is a residue from the basic oxygen converter in steel-making operations, which is partially reused as an aggregate for road constructions. It is essentially composed of calcium, silicon and iron but also contains potential toxic elements present as traces, like chromium (Cr, 2600 mg kg^− 1) and vanadium (V, 690 mg kg^− 1), which can be released. The linked results of chemical analysis, XRD and SEM-EDX enabled to identify the main mineral phases composing BOF slag and EDX micro-analyses indicated that V and Cr were associated to dicalciumferrite. A 47-days static leaching test at a laboratory scale with a controlled pH of 5 (pH_stat leaching test) showed that Cr was little released, while V was significantly released. Finally, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra of 3 BOF slag samples were recorded (“raw”, leached 47 days at pH 5 and aged 2 years in a lysimeter). XANES spectra showed that Cr is present at octahedral coordination in the trivalent form, the less mobile and less toxic one, and that its speciation does not evolve during natural ageing and leaching at pH 5. They also indicated that V is predominantly present in the + 4 oxidation state and seems to become oxidized to the pentavalent form (the most toxic form) during natural ageing.