Recovery of heavy metals from MSW molten fly ash by carrier-in-pulp method: Fe powder as carrier

Municipal solid waste (MSW) molten fly ash is classified as a hazardous waste because it contains considerable amount of heavy metals, which pose environmental concern due to their leaching potential in landfill environment. This study proposes carrier-in-pulp (CIP) method as a new hydrometallurgical route to extract and recover Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd from molten fly ash before landfilling. In this method, a carrier material, which recovers the extracted metals, is added simultaneously with fly ash to a leaching solution and is harvested from the pulp by physical separation method, such as magnetic separation or sieving.To demonstrate the effect of the CIP method, shaking flask experiments were conducted under various conditions using NaCl solution, iron powder as carrier, and molten fly ash. More than 99 wt% Pb, Zn, and Cd, and 97 wt% Cu were extracted from the ash. However, only Pb and Cu were recovered (96.3 wt% Pb and 94.3 wt% Cu) by the iron powder through cementation, leaving behind Zn and Cd ions in the solution phase. The leaching test conducted on the treated fly ash residue revealed that the CIP method suppressed the solubilization of Pb to a value below the landfill disposal guideline.