Assessment of heavy metals in RDF for thermochemical conversion

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Cape Peninsula University Technology, Cape Town Campus, Cape Town 8000, South Africa
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Durban University Technology, Steve Biko Campus, Durban, 4001, South Africa

^∗ Corresponding author: Ismaila@dut.ca.za

Abstract

Thermal treatment applications towards production of energy from raw and pre-treated municipal solid waste (MSW) are continuously growing context in contemporary waste-to-energy technology. The quality of MSW needs an improved analysis to enhance her choice of energy exploitation and environmental assessment of fly and bottom ashes associated with thermochemical conversions. The MSW were collected from municipal solid waste disposal facilities (MSWDF) in Cape Town to investigate heavy metals distributions in MSW. The MSW were pre-treated to improve the quality of MSW. The 7700 Series quadrupole ICP-MS solution method was used to determine concentrations and distributions of some heavy metals from MSWDF in Cape Town. This study further predicted distributions of heavy metals in fly and bottom ashes by a model. The results showed that accumulation of high concentrations of heavy metals in bottom ash residue could be a good remedy for heavy metals control. The heavy metals (especially Pb, Zn and Hg) emissions could be technically monitored and controlled from escaping to urban air-sheds atmosphere and prevent from their consequential secondary environmental and health implication.