Thermal behaviors and heavy metal vaporization of phosphatized tannery sludge in incineration process

The high concentration of heavy metal (Cu, Cr, Zn, Pb) in tannery sludge causes severe heavy metal emissions in the process of incineration. In the present investigation, the tannery sludge was treated with 85% phosphoric acid before the incineration process in the tube furnace to control the heavy metal emissions. The thermal behavior and heavy metal vaporization of pre-treated tannery sludge were investigated, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were also implemented to elucidate the chemical mechanisms responsible for the thermal behavior and weakening of heavy metal vaporization of pre-treated tannery sludge. The results obtained show that the differences in thermal behaviors between untreated and pre-treated tannery sludge are caused by the reaction of phosphoric acid and calcium carbonate. The vaporization percentage of heavy metal decreased efficiently with the increasing volumes of H3PO4, which indicated the important thermal stability of the water-insoluble metallic phosphates (Ca18Cu3(PO4)14, Ca9Cr(PO4)7, Ca19Zn2(PO4)14, PbMgP2O7) formed during tannery sludge phosphatation.