Mercury leaching characteristics of waste treatment residues generated from various sources in Korea

•31 Waste treatment residues from 17 industrial process facilities in Korea were collected.•Hg content of fly ash was generally greater than that of other types of residue.•Hg leaching ratio (RL) of residues were evaluated from Hg contents and TCLP values.•Fly ashes with low RL mostly consisted of water-insoluble Hg compounds.•Fly ashes with high RL were composed of more than 20% high-solubility Hg compounds.

In this study, mercury (Hg) leaching characteristics of the waste treatment residues (fly ash, bottom ash, sludge, and phosphor powder) generated from various sources (municipal, industrial, medical waste incinerators, sewage sludge incinerator, oil refinery, coal-fired power plant, steel manufacturing plant, fluorescent lamp recycler, and cement kiln) in Korea were investigated. First, both Hg content analysis and toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) testing was conducted for 31 collected residue samples. The Hg content analysis showed that fly ash from waste incinerators contained more Hg than the other residue samples. However, the TCLP values of fly ash samples with similar Hg content varied widely based on the residue type. Fly ash samples with low and high Hg leaching ratios (RL) were further analyzed to identify the major factors that influence the Hg leaching potential. Buffering capacity of the low-RL fly ash was higher than that of the high-RL fly ash. The Hg speciation results suggest that the low-RL fly ashes consisted primarily of low-solubility Hg compounds (Hg2Cl2, Hg0 or HgS), whereas the high-RL fly ashes contain more than 20% high-solubility Hg compounds (HgCl2 or HgSO4).