Effect of ash circulation in gasification melting system on concentration and leachability of lead in melting furnace fly ash

•We investigated the gasification-melting process with ash circulation.•We analyzed fly ash generated from the gasification-melting process.•Concentration of Pb in the fly ash was increased by the ash circulation.•Leachability of Pb in the fly ash was enhanced by the ash circulation.

In some gasification-melting plants, generated melting furnace fly ash is returned back to the melting furnace for converting the ash to slag. This study investigated the effect of such ash circulation in the gasification-melting system on the concentration and leachability of lead in the melting furnace fly ash. The ash circulation in the melting process was simulated by a thermodynamic calculation, and an elemental analysis and leaching tests were performed on a melting furnace fly ash sample collected from the gasification-melting plant with the ash circulation. It was found that by the ash circulation in the gasification-melting, lead was highly concentrated in the melting furnace fly ash to the level equal to the fly ash from the ash-melting process. The thermodynamic calculation predicted that the lead volatilization by the chlorination is promoted by the ash circulation resulting in the high lead concentration. In addition, the lead extraction from the melting furnace fly ash into a NaOH solution was also enhanced by the ash circulation, and over 90% of lead in the fly ash was extracted in 5 min when using 0.5 mol l−1 NaOH solution with L/S ratio of 10 at 100 °C. Based on the results, a combination of the gasification-melting with the ash circulation and the NaOH leaching method is proposed for the high efficient lead recovery.