Effects of Sorbents on the Partitioning and Speciation of Cu During Municipal Solid Waste Incineration

Oxides of silicon, aluminium and calcium are normally dominant minerals during municipal solid waste (MSW) combustion. In flue gas, SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO all act as sorbents capturing heavy metals (and semi-volatile organics). To further understand the effect of sorbents during MSW combustion, the effects of SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO on Cu partitioning were experimentally investigated by the combustion of synthetic MSW in a tubular furnace and their effects on Cu speciation were studied by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations using ChemKin software. The experiments show that CaO has the highest Cu sorption efficiency at 900 °C, followed by Al2O3 and SiO2. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculations show that for Cu the addition of SiO2 and Al2O3 reduces the amount of liquid CuCl, which is more volatile. However, the addition of CaO has little influence on chemical sorption of Cu, indicating that the sorption of CaO is resulted from physical sorption.

Graphical abstractThe effects of sorbents SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO on the Cu speciation were analyzed by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations using ChemKin software. Their effects on Cu partitioning were experimentally investigated by the combustion of synthetic MSW in a tubular furnace. The experiments showed that CaO had the highest Cu sorption efficiency at 900 °C, followed by Al2O3 and SiO2.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide