Leaching Behaviors of Arsenic from Arsenic-Iron Hydroxide Sludge during TCLP
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 8
Abstract
The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) is normally used to evaluate if sludge should be managed as hazardous waste. This study examines immobilization mechanisms of arsenic onto arsenic-iron hydroxide sludge, the byproduct of arsenic removal by coagulation with ferric chloride. The leaching mechanism of arsenic from the sludge due to the TCLP is also investigated. Microscopic characterization techniques including scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were employed to characterize the sludge samples with the ratios of 0.07 to 0.15 before and after the TCLP. SEM-EDS and FT-IR results suggested that arsenic-iron hydroxide sludge be ferric hydroxide, whose surface is inner or outer spherically sorbed by arsenic, rather than the precipitate of insoluble iron-arsenic compounds such as . This is also confirmed by XRD results, which revealed that none of such crystalline iron-arsenic compounds were detected in the arsenic-iron hydroxide sludge. Therefore, adsorption among other possible arsenic immobilization mechanisms, namely, precipitation, coprecipitation, and occlusion, is supposed to play the major role. Due to the TCLP, the arsenic concentrations ranging from 0.26 to were leached out of the sludge samples with the ratios ranging from 0.07 to 0.15, respectively. The changes of FT-IR patterns of the sludge after the TCLP suggested that during the TCLP, desorption and resorption of arsenic occurs. The relationship between arsenic in TCLP leachate and that remaining in the leached sludge can be modeled by Langmuir isotherm, an adsorption isotherm. This indicates that desorption and resorption of arsenic onto the leached sludge is the main phenomenon controlling arsenic leachability due to the TCLP.
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Acknowledgments
This research work was funded by the National Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management (NRC-EHWM), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand and the New Jersey Applied Water Research Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, N.J. The writers also would like to express gratitude to the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), Patumtani, Thailand and the Scientific and Technological Research Equipment Center of Chulalongkorn University for the use of its XRD and SEM-EDS, respectively. The insightful and helpful technical support from associate professor Gregory V. Lowry (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) and Miss Akiko Uyeda (NRC-EHWM) is also gratefully acknowledged.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 8 • August 2008
Pages: 671 - 682
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 12, 2007
Accepted: Dec 21, 2007
Published online: Aug 1, 2008
Published in print: Aug 2008
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