Copper stabilization in beneficial use of waterworks sludge and copper-laden electroplating sludge for ceramic materials

• Identify Cu-hosting phases by sintering Cu sludge with waterworks sludge ash.
• Quantify phase compositions in the sintered product.
• Compare product leaching behavior to suggest the preferred metal hosting phases.
• Provide a feasible strategy to safely and reliably recycle metal-containing waste.

A promising strategy for effectively incorporating metal-containing waste materials into a variety of ceramic products was devised in this study. Elemental analysis confirmed that copper was the predominant metal component in the collected electroplating sludge, and aluminum was the predominant constituent of waterworks sludge collected in Hong Kong. The use of waterworks sludge as an aluminum-rich precursor material to facilitate copper stabilization under thermal conditions provides a promising waste-to-resource strategy. When sintering the mixture of copper sludge and the 900 °C calcined waterworks sludge, the CuAl2O4 spinel phase was first detected at 650 °C and became the predominant product phase at temperatures higher than 850 °C. Quantification of the XRD pattern using the Rietveld refinement method revealed that the weight of the CuAl2O4 spinel phase reached over 50% at 850 °C. The strong signals of the CuAl2O4 phase continued until the temperature reached 1150 °C, and further sintering initiated the generation of the other copper-hosting phases (CuAlO2, Cu2O, and CuO). The copper stabilization effect was evaluated by the copper leachability of the CuAl2O4 and CuO via the prolonged leaching experiments at a pH value of 4.9. The leaching results showed that the CuAl2O4 phase was superior to the CuAlO2 and CuO phases for immobilizing hazardous copper over longer leaching periods. The findings clearly indicate that spinel formation is the most crucial metal stabilization mechanism when sintering multiphase copper sludge with aluminum-rich waterworks sludge, and suggest a promising and reliable technique for reusing both types of sludge waste for ceramic materials.