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Immobilization of heavy metals in electroplating sludge by biochar and iron sulfide

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Honghong Lyu
Honghong Lyu
Honghong Lyu
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Yanyan Gong at Jinan University (Guangzhou, China)
Yanyan Gong
Jingchun Tang at Nankai University
Jingchun Tang
Yao Huang 黄耀 at Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences
Yao Huang 黄耀
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Abstract and Figures

Electroplating sludge (ES) containing large quantities of heavy metals is regarded as a hazardous waste in China. This paper introduced a simple method of treating ES using environmentally friendly fixatives biochar (BC) and iron sulfide (FeS), respectively. After 3 days of treatment with FeS at a FeS-to-ES mass ratio of 1:5, the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP)-based leachability of total Cr (TCr), Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) was decreased by 59.6, 100, 63.8, 73.5, and 90.5 %, respectively. After 5 days of treatment with BC at a BC-to-ES mass ratio of 1:2, the TCLP-based leachability was declined by 35.1, 30.6, 22.3, 23.1, and 22.4 %, respectively. Pseudo first-order kinetic model adequately simulated the sorption kinetic data. Structure and morphology analysis showed that adsorption, electrostatic attraction, surface complexation, and chemical precipitation were dominant mechanisms for heavy metals immobilization by BC, and that chemical precipitation (formation of metal sulfide and hydroxide precipitates), iron exchange (formation of CuFeS2), and surface complexation were mainly responsible for heavy metals removal by FeS. Economic costs of BC and FeS were 500 and 768 CNY/t, lower than that of Na2S (940 CNY/t). The results suggest that BC and FeS are effective, economic, and environmentally friendly fixatives for immobilization of heavy metals in ES before landfill disposal.
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Immobilization of heavy metals in electroplating sludge
by biochar and iron sulfide
Honghong Lyu
1
&Yanyan Gong
1,2,3
&Jingcshun Tang
1,2,3
&Ya o H u a n g
1
&Qilin Wang
4
Received: 20 January 2016 / Accepted: 3 April 2016/Published online: 11 April 2016
#Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Electroplating sludge (ES) containing large quanti-
ties of heavy metals is regarded as a hazardous waste in China.
This paper introduced a simple method of treating ES using
environmentally friendly fixatives biochar (BC) and iron sul-
fide (FeS), respectively. After 3 days of treatment with FeS at
a FeS-to-ES mass ratio of 1:5, the toxicity characteristic
leaching procedure (TCLP)-based leachability of total Cr
(TCr), Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) was decreased by
59.6, 100, 63.8, 73.5, and 90.5 %, respectively. After 5 days
of treatment with BC at a BC-to-ES mass ratio of 1:2, the
TCLP-based leachability was declined by 35.1, 30.6, 22.3,
23.1, and 22.4 %, respectively. Pseudo first-order kinetic mod-
el adequately simulated the sorption kinetic data. Structure
and morphology analysis showed that adsorption, electrostatic
attraction, surface complexation, and chemical precipitation
were dominant mechanisms for heavy metals immobilization
by BC, and that chemical precipitation (formation of metal
sulfide and hydroxide precipitates), iron exchange (formation
of CuFeS
2
), and surface complexation were mainly
responsible for heavy metals removal by FeS. Economic costs
of BC and FeS were 500 and 768 CNY/t, lower than that of
Na
2
S (940 CNY/t). The results suggest that BC and FeS are
effective, economic, and environmentally friendly fixatives
for immobilization of heavy metals in ES before landfill
disposal.
Keywords Heavy meals .Immobilization .Electroplating
sludge .Biochar .Iron sulfide .Hazardous waste
Introduction
Several technologies have been reported for the treatment of
electroplating sludge (ES), including acid/surfactant leaching
(Li et al. 2010a), recovery of valuable metals (Huang et al.
2013), immobilization of heavy metals by fixatives
(Asavapisit et al. 2005;Bednariketal.2005;Kucharetal.
2006; Pileckaite et al. 2015), and biological methods
(Prabhu and Baskar 2015a,b;Shietal.2008)(Table1).
Previous studies showed that acid/surfactants leaching gener-
ates by-products such as spent acid solution and heavy-metal
contaminated wastewater, which may cause serious secondary
pollution (Huang et al. 2013). Recovery procedure usually
needs high energy consumption and operation costs (Yang
et al. 2014). Biological methods are time-consuming and
confronted with the issues such as how to culture highly
adaptable and stable bacteria (Prabhu and Baskar 2015a;Shi
et al. 2008). Among these treatment methods, immobilization
with the addition of fixatives is considered to be an effective
way with respect to the ease of operation, fast reaction rate, as
well as high immobilization efficiency.
Fixatives can reduce the leachability of heavy metals
through adsorption, ionic exchange, and chemical precipita-
tion (USEPA 1982). However, traditional fixatives, such as
Responsible editor: Angeles Blanco
*Yanyan Gong
yanyangong@nankai.edu.cn
*Jingcshun Tang
tangjch@nankai.edu.cn
1
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai
University, Tianjin 300071, China
2
Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria
(Ministry of Education), Tianjin 300071, China
3
Tianjin Engineering Center of Environmental Diagnosis and
Contamination Remediation, Tianjin 300071, China
4
Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of
Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
Environ Sci Pollut Res (2016) 23:14472–14488
DOI 10.1007/s11356-016-6621-5
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

Supplementary resource (1)

Immobilization of heavy metals in electroplating sludge
Data
April 2016
Honghong Lyu · Yanyan Gong · Jingchun Tang · Yao Huang 黄耀 · Qilin Wang
... In the research done by Moradi and Sharabaf (2022) suggested that the number of microorganisms was increased in the presence of enriched biochar. Enriched biochar has proved to be more effective in alleviating the contaminants like salinity, organic contaminants and heavy metals (Moradi and Sharabaf 2022;Lyu et al. 2016). Moradi and Sharabaf (2022) has shown in their results that the effect of salinity was greatly reduced by using enriched biochar as compared to that of simple biochar. ...
... Enriched or doped biochar has also shown better results in reduction of heavy metals. BC/Fe composites have the capability to reduce the heavy metals (Lyu et al. 2016). In environment chromium is present in two forms, i.e. ...
... Cr (III) and Cr (VI). Cr (VI) is more toxic to plants as compared to that of Cr (III), so in this case biochar supported nZVI-BC proved to be an effective remedy for adsorbing toxic Cr ion and also converting it into less toxic species (Lyu et al. 2016). Silicon doped biochar can also stimulate the oxidation of Fe and provide sites for the attachment with nZVI to increase the removal of Cr (VI) (Qian et al. 2019). ...
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... Given that such sludge was legally treated at a high cost by a specialized company, its high yield should be heavily considered using Fe/S-bearing flocculant. During the treatment, extra reagents, such as asphalt (Bednarik et al., 2004(Bednarik et al., , 2005, biochar, FeS (Lyu et al., 2016), clay and kaolin (Pileckaite et al., 2015), were mixed with the sludge to stabilise heavy metals, amounting to a reagent cost of US$ 118.2-269.2/ton (Bednarik et al., 2005;Lyu et al., 2016;Zhu et al., 2018). ...
... During the treatment, extra reagents, such as asphalt (Bednarik et al., 2004(Bednarik et al., , 2005, biochar, FeS (Lyu et al., 2016), clay and kaolin (Pileckaite et al., 2015), were mixed with the sludge to stabilise heavy metals, amounting to a reagent cost of US$ 118.2-269.2/ton (Bednarik et al., 2005;Lyu et al., 2016;Zhu et al., 2018). This aforementioned cost did not cover the expense of power, transport, landfill and labour, resulting in a high total operating cost. ...
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