Leaching behavior of heavy metals and PAHs from MSWI bottom ash in a long-term static immersing experiment

Bottom ash is the main solid residue (in weight) which is produced by municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) facilities. This material is composed of a mineral matrix and may be used as secondary raw material for construction purpose. However, for this specific application the leaching behavior of the environmentally relevant elements under field conditions is different from the predicted behavior based on results obtained from the standardized leaching test. Therefore, a 70-day simulative experiment has been carried out in this study to investigate the release of major heavy metals (Cu and Pb) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from several particle fractions of bottom ash under a static leaching condition, where bottom ash was immersed in water at different initial pH values. Results showed that: (1) the leaching behavior of Cu and Pb was much similar with that depicted by the standardized leaching tests, and fit well with the solubility-controlling mechanism; (2) the sorption mechanism on the neoformed phases may control the solubility of Pb, whereas the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) may play an important role in the solubility of Cu; and (3) the leached PAHs were degraded during the later period of leaching process.