Electroremediation of air pollution control residues in a continuous reactor

Air pollution control (APC) residue from municipal solid waste incineration is considered hazardous waste due to its alkalinity and high content of salts and mobile heavy metals. Various solutions for the handling of APC-residue exist, however most commercial solutions involve landfilling. A demand for environmental sustainable alternatives exists and electrodialysis could be such an alternative. The potential of electrodialysis for treating APC-residue is explored in this work by designing and testing a continuous-flow bench-scale reactor that can work with a high solids content feed solution. Experiments were made with raw residue, water-washed residue, acid washed residue and acid-treated residue with emphasis on reduction of heavy metal mobility. Main results indicate that the reactor successfully removes toxic elements lead, copper, cadmium and zinc from the feed stream, suggesting that the electrodialytic technique is an alternative to land deposition of APC-residues.