Microwave drying optimization and kinetic modeling of fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration

As a kind of hazardous waste, municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI FA) needs to be stored in a dry state in the process of landfill, transportation, and comprehensive utilization. Therefore, from the perspective of safety and sustainable development, it is necessary to dry as the pretreatment of MSWI FA. In this paper, MSWI FA drying experiments were carried out under different microwave power, different initial moisture content, and different particle size distribution conditions. The drying characteristics of MSWI FA were explored and the thin-layer drying kinetic model was used to explore the basic theory of the dynamics of MSWI FA drying process for the first time. The fitting analysis of the experimental data showed that the drying efficiency of MSWI FA increases gradually with the increase of microwave power and fly ash particle size, and the drying process of MSWI FA could be well represented by the Diffusion approach model (R² greater than 0.99). Through Fick's second law calculation, it was found that when the microwave power was increased from 400w to 800w, the surface diffusion coefficient increased from 1.11 × 10^-12 m²/s to 2.92 × 10^-12 m²/s, which further showed that the microwave power has a significant effect on the drying efficiency of MSWI FA.