The potential leaching and mobilization of trace elements from FGD-gypsum of a coal-fired power plant under water re-circulation conditions

Experimental and geochemical modelling studies were carried out to identify mineral and solid phases containing major, minor, and trace elements and the mechanism of the retention of these elements in Flue Gas Desulphurisation（FGD）-gypsum samples from a coal-fired power plant under filtered water recirculation to the scrubber and forced oxidation conditions. The role of the p H and related environmental factors on the mobility of Li, Ni, Zn, As, Se, Mo, and U from FGD-gypsums for a comprehensive assessment of element leaching behaviour were also carried out. Results show that the extraction rate of the studied elements generally increases with decreasing the p H value of the FGD-gypsum leachates. The increase of the mobility of elements such as U, Se, and As in the FGD-gypsum entails the modification of their aqueous speciation in the leachates; UO2SO4, H2 Se, and HAs O2 are the aqueous complexes with the highest activities under acidic conditions.The speciation of Zn, Li, and Ni is not affected in spite of p H changes; these elements occur as free cations and associated to SO4 ^2 in the FGD-gypsum leachates. The mobility of Cu and Mo decreases by decreasing the p H of the FGD-gypsum leachates, which might be associated to the precipitation of Cu Se2 and Mo Se2, respectively. Time-of-Flight mass spectrometry of the solid phase combined with geochemical modelling of the aqueous phase has proved useful in understanding the mobility and geochemical behaviour of elements and their partitioning into FGD-gypsum samples.

Assessment of leaching behavior and human bioaccessibility of rare earth elements in typical hospital waste incineration ash in China

Leaching behavior and gastrointestinal bioaccessibility of rare earth elements （REEs） from hospital waste incineration （HWI） fly and bottom ash samples collected from Beijing and Nanjing Cities were assessed. In the same ash sample, the leaching concentrations of individual REEs determined by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure （TCLP） were higher than those detected by the European standard protocol （EN-type test）, thereby suggesting that the low pH value of leaching solution was an important factor influencing the leacha（bility-of REE. The REE bioaccessibility results, which were evaluated using the physiologically based extraction test （PBET）, indicated that REEs were highly absorbed during fgastric phase by dissolution; and subsequently precipitated and/or re-adsorbed in small intestinal phase. The relative amounts of the total REEs extracted by the TCLP method, EN-type test and PBET test were compared. In addition to the pH value of extraction solutions, the chelating role of REEs witllt organic ligands used in the PBET method was also an important parameter affecting REE adsorption in human body. Additionally, this study showed that REEs were extracted by these methods as concomitants of heavy metals and anions （NO3^-, F^-, SO4^2- , and Cl^-） from HWI ash, which probably caused the remarkably complex toxicity on human body by the exposure pathway.

Environmental risk assessment of industrial byproduct gypsum utilized for flling abandoned mines

In response to the basic policy of green and low-carbon circular development to solve resource,environmental and ecological problems,gypsum is considered to be a flling material for mine backflling.To explore the potential risks of gypsum to the groundwater environment due to the backflling of abandoned mines,a sequential batch leaching experiment was carried out in this paper,which used three types of industrial waste gypsum,namely,phosphorus gypsum(PG),titanium gypsum(TG)and fue gas desulfurization gypsum(FGDG).COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4 software was used to simulate and solve the migration process of the leached metal elements in the mine foor when these three gypsum types were used as flling materials to observe the concentration distributions and difusion distances of the metal elements from these three gypsum types in the mine foor.The results show that(1)during repeated contact of the three types of industrial waste gypsum with the leaching medium,the pH levels changed,and the changes in pH afected the leaching patterns for the heavy metal elements in the gypsum.(2)Based on the concentrations of the metal elements that were leached from the three types of gypsum,it can be determined that these three types of gypsum are not classifed as hazardous solid wastes,but they cannot be ruled out with regard to their risk to the groundwater environment when they are used as mine flling materials.(3)When the three types of gypsum are used as flling materials,the concentration distributions of the metal elements and their migration distances all exhibit signifcant changes over time.The concentration distributions,difusion rates and migration distances of the metal elements from the diferent gypsum types are afected by their initial concentrations in the leachate.The maximum migration distances of Zn in the foor from the PG,FGDG and TG are 8.2,8.1 and 7.5 m,respectively.