Haobo Hou

Characteristics and mechanisms of phosphate adsorption onto basic oxygen furnace slag

The adsorption characteristics of phosphate adsorption on the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag were identified as a function of pH and ion strengths in solution. In addition, adsorption mechanisms were investigated by conducting batch tests on both the hydrolysis and phosphate adsorption process of the BOF slag, and making a comparative analysis to gain newer insights into understanding the adsorption process. Results show that the adsorption capacity from 4.97 to 3.71 mgP/g slag when the solution pH was increased from 2.0 to 13.0 and phosphate initial concentration was 50 mg/L, indicating that adsorption capacity is largely dependent upon the pH of the system. The results of the competitive adsorption between phosphate and typical anions found in wastewater, such as NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-) and Cl(-), onto BOF slag reveal that BOF slag can selectively adsorb phosphate ions. The insignificant effect of NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-) and Cl(-) on phosphate adsorption capacity indicates that phosphate adsorption is through a kind of inner-sphere complex reaction. During the adsorption process, the decrease of phosphate concentration in solution accompanied with an increase in pH values and concentrations of NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-) and Cl(-) suggests that phosphate replaced the functional groups from the surface of BOF slag which infers that ligand exchange is the dominating mechanism for phosphate removal. At the same time, the simultaneous decreases in PO(4)(3-) and total calcium, magnesium and aluminum concentration in solution indicate that chemical reaction and precipitation are other mechanisms of phosphate removal.

Competitive adsorption of copper(II), cadmium(II), lead(II) and zinc(II) onto basic oxygen furnace slag.

Polluted and contaminated water can often contain more than one heavy metal species. It is possible that the behavior of a particular metal species in a solution system will be affected by the presence of other metals. In this study, we have investigated the adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) onto basic oxygen furnace slag (BOF slag) in single- and multi-element solution systems as a function of pH and concentration, in a background solution of 0.01M NaNO(3). In adsorption edge experiments, the pH was varied from 2.0 to 13.0 with total metal concentration 0.84mM in the single element system and 0.21mM each of Cd(II), Cu(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) in the multi-element system. The value of pH(50) (the pH at which 50% adsorption occurs) was found to follow the sequence Zn>Cu>Pb>Cd in single-element systems, but Pb>Cu>Zn>Cd in the multi-element system. Adsorption isotherms at pH 6.0 in the multi-element systems showed that there is competition among various metals for adsorption sites on BOF slag. The adsorption and potentiometric titrations data for various slag-metal systems were modeled using an extended constant-capacitance surface complexation model that assumed an ion-exchange process below pH 6.5 and the formation of inner-sphere surface complexes at higher pH. Inner-sphere complexation was more dominant for the Cu(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) systems.

A combination of solvent extraction and freeze thaw for oil recovery from petroleum refinery wastewater treatment pond sludge.

A combination of solvent extraction and freeze thaw was examined for recovering oil from the high-moisture petroleum refinery wastewater treatment pond sludge. Five solvents including cyclohexane (CHX), dichloromethane (DCM), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), ethyl acetate (EA), and 2-propanol (2-Pro) were examined. It was found that these solvents except 2-Pro showed a promising oil recovery rate of about 40%, but the recycling of DCM solvent after oil extraction was quite low. Three solvents (CHX, MEK and EA) were then selected for examining the effect of freeze/thaw treatment on improving the quality of recovered oil. This treatment increased the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) content in recovered oil from about 40% to 60% for both MEK and EA extractions, but little effect was observed for CHX extraction. Although the solid residue after oil recovery had a significantly decreased TPH content, a high concentration of heavy metals was observed, indicating that this residue may require proper management. In general, the combination of solvent extraction with freeze/thaw is effective for high-moisture oily hazardous waste treatment.

Characteristics of the stabilized/solidified municipal solid wastes incineration fly ash and the leaching behavior of Cr and Pb

Fly ash is a hazardous byproduct of municipal solid wastes incineration (MSWI). An alkali activated blast furnace slag-based cementitious material was used to stabilize/solidify the fly ash at experimental level. The characteristics of the stabilized/solidified fly ash, including metal leachability, mineralogical characteristics and the distributions of metals in matrices, were tested by toxic characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) respectively. Continuous acid extraction was utilized to extract metal ions and characterize their leaching behavior. The stabilization/ solidification procedure for MSWI fly ash demonstrates a strong fixing capacity for the metals by the formation of CS-H phase, hydrated calcium aluminosilicate and ettringite. The stabilized/solidified fly ash shows a dense and homogeneous microstructure. Cr is mainly solidified in hydrated calcium aluminosilicate, C-S-H and ettringite phase through physical encapsulation, precipitation, adsorption or substitution mechanisms, and Pb is mainly solidified in C-S-H phase and absorbed in the Si-O structure.

The transformation behaviors of heavy metals and dewaterability of sewage sludge during the dual conditioning with Fe2+-sodium persulfate oxidation and rice husk

This study focused on the behavior of heavy metals (HMs) in sewage sludge after conditioning based on total HMs concentration, fractionation and leaching tests. Fe2+-sodium persulfate (SPS) oxidation was applied as chemical conditioner and rice husk (RH) was added as a physical conditioner to improve the dewaterability of sewage sludge. Combined the response surface methodology analysis and our previous research, the capillary suction time (CST) and the water content of sludge cake reduced by 93.8% and 25%, respectively, after conditioned by 125 mg g-1 dry solid (DS) SPS, 33 mg g-1 DS Fe2+, 333 mg g-1 DS RH at original pH of sludge. The HMs analysis indicated that the concentrations of Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn and Cr were increased in liquid phase after conditioning process. And after conditioned by Fe2+/SPS with RH, the leaching toxicity reduction are 79%, 100%, 93%, 80% and 68% for Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn and Cr, respectively. Results showed that RH combined with Fe2+/SPS oxidation has a synergistic effect on risk reduction and immobilization of HMs. The chemical species of HMs were redistributed and the risk of Pb was reduced from medium risk to no risk after sludge conditioning process according to the risk assessment.

Properties and mechanism of mine tailings solidified and filled with fluorgypsum-based binder material

The properties and microscopic structure of tailings solidification bodies, the hardening mechanism of the fluorgypsum-based binder material (FBBM) and tailings solidification mechanism were investigated. FBBM consisted of 40% fluorgypsum, 25%–50% blast furnace slag, 10%–35% ordinary Portland cement clinker(OPCC) and 1% activator, which was good material in binding iron ore tailings.XRD analysis showed that the properties of tailings solidification bodies was related to its ettringite content.SEM and XRD analyses of tailings solidification bodies showed that the chemical reaction was produced between FBBM and tailings in the whole hydration process. The hydration of the resulting gel material covered the surface of the tailings particles and formed a gel structure. A large number of ettringite crystals and the remaining board-like gypsum crystals took each end and constituted the structural skeleton. The filamentous network-like calciumsilicate-hydrate(C-S-H) gel bonded firmly together with ettringite crystals, dehydrated gypsum crystals and granular tailings, and formed an extremely dense whole.

Synthesis and thermodynamic properties of arsenate and sulfate-arsenate ettringite structure phases

Arsenic is a toxic and carcinogenic contaminant of potential concern. Ettringite [Ca6Al2(SO4)3(OH)12·26H2O] has the ability to incorporate oxyanions as a solid solution with SO42−, which could lower the soluble oxyanion concentrations. Therefore, ettringite containing SO42− and AsO43− has been synthesized. Results indicated that AsO43− could substitute for SO42− inside the channels of ettringite in the form of HAsO42−, and a linear correlation existed between Xinitial solution and Xsolid. The thermodynamic characterization of the solid samples was investigated by means of Visual MINTEQ, a freeware chemical equilibrium model, and the solubility product logK of -48.4 ± 0.4 was calculated for HAsO4–ettringite at 25°C. The Lippmann phase diagram and XHAsO4–XHAsO4,aq plot showed that the solid solution series containing arsenate has HAsO4-poor aqueous solutions in equilibrium. These findings can be helpful to arsenate solidification and arsenate leaching modeling projects.