Long and short-term performance of a stabilized/solidified electric arc furnace dust

The application of class F fly ash, cement and lime to the Stabilization/Solidification (S/S) of electric arc furnace dust containing hazardous metals such as Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cr is described. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of the setting conditions during the S/S treatment and to know the behaviour of an aged solidified and stabilized waste. In order to determine the efficiency attained by the S/S process, USEPA TCLP, and other leaching tests have been accomplished. In addition, the compressive strength of the solidified waste at different times has been determined. In order to study the influence of the environmental conditions in which setting occurs, experiments were carried out with samples of the same composition, under different setting conditions: laboratory environment, stove at a temperature of 40-60 °C and setting in a hermetically sealed plastic bag at room temperature. All the samples were subjected to the TCLP test at 28 days, and the metal content of the resulting leachates was analysed. The results show that in some cases the setting conditions of the mixtures have a noticeable influence on the characteristics of the leachate. The evolution with time of some S/S solids, one month after their manufacture and more than 9 years after that has also been evaluated, by means of their leaching behaviour. The results obtained in this work have shown, in all the laboratory cured samples that the leachate pH decrease in the course of time, and consequently the leaching behaviour is in general worse. This could be due to the carbonation of the S/S solid and the subsequent loss of alkalinity.