Environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation

Incineration ashes may be treated either as a waste to be dumped in landfill, or as a resource that is suitable for re-use. In order to choose the best management scenario, knowledge is needed on the potential environmental impact that may be expected, including not only local, but also regional and global impact. In this study, A life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach was outlined for environmental assessment of incinerator residue utilisation, in which leaching of trace elements as well as other emissions to air and water and the use of resources were regarded as constituting the potential environmental impact from the system studied. Case studies were performed for two selected ash types, bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) and wood fly ash. The MSWI bottom ash was assumed to be suitable for road construction or as drainage material in landfill, whereas the wood fly ash was assumed to be suitable for road construction or as a nutrient resource to be recycled on forest land after biofuel harvesting. Different types of potential environmental impact predominated in the activities of the system and the use of natural resources and the trace element leaching were identified as being relatively important for the scenarios compared. The scenarios differed in use of resources and energy, whereas there is a potential for trace element leaching regardless of how the material is managed. Utilising MSWI bottom ash in road construction and recycling of wood ash on forest land saved more natural resources and energy than when these materials were managed according to the other scenarios investigated, including dumping in landfill.     

Life-cycle impacts of the use of industrial by-products in road and earth construction

A two-stage study "Life cycle analysis of road construction and earthworks" was part of a more extensive Finnish research project "Assessment of the applicability of secondary products in earthworks". In the first stage of this work a life-cycle impact assessment procedure for the comparison and evaluation of alternative road and earth constructions was developed. Additionally, a database containing the environmental burdens of the most significant construction materials and unit operations was constructed. In order to evaluate the applicability of the procedure, the use of coal ash, crushed concrete waste and granulated blast-furnace slag in road construction was evaluated in case studies. The use of these secondary products was also compared with the use of natural materials in corresponding applications. The aim of the second stage was to transfer the assembled data for utilisation as a practical model by creating an inventory analysis program to calculate and compare the life cycle impacts of the most common road constructions and foundation engineering methods. The data obtained in the first stage was also augmented to the extent necessary for this purpose. The results of case studies indicate that the production and transport of the materials used in road constructions produce the most significant environmental burdens. Production of the bitumen and cement, crushing of materials and transport of materials are the most energy consuming single life-cycle stages of the construction. A large part of the emissions to atmosphere originates from energy production. In the expert assessment, consumption of natural materials and leaching behaviour were also regarded as being of great significance.     

Construction demolition wastes, Waelz slag and MSWI bottom ash: a comparative technical analysis as material for road construction

The objective of the study is to analyze the technical suitability of using secondary materials from three waste flows (construction and demolition waste (CDW), Waelz slag and municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash), under the regulations and standards governing the use of materials for road construction. A detailed technical characterization of the materials was carried out according to Spanish General Technical Specifications for Road Construction (PG3). The results show that Waelz slag can be adequate for using in granular structural layers, while CDW fits better as granular material in roadbeds. Likewise, fresh MSWI bottom ash can be used as roadbed material as long as it does not contain a high concentration of soluble salts. This paper also discusses the adequacy of using certain traditional test methods for natural soils when characterizing secondary materials for use as aggregates in road construction.     

The use of marine sediments as a pavement base material

The management of marine sediments after dredging has become increasingly complex. In the context of sustainable development, traditional solutions such as immersion will be increasingly regulated. More than ever, with the shortage of aggregates from quarries, dredged material could constitute a new source of materials. In this study of the potential of using dredged marine sediments in road construction, the first objective is to determine the physical and mechanical characteristics of fine sediments dredged from a harbour in the north of France. The impacts of these materials on the environment are also explored. In the second stage, the characteristics of the fine sediment are enhanced for use as a road material. At this stage, the treatment used is compatible with industrial constraints. To decrease the water content of the fine sediments, natural decantation is employed; in addition, dredged sand is added to enhance the granular distribution and to reinforce the granular skeleton. Finally, the characteristics of the mix are enhanced by incorporating binders (cement and/or lime). The mechanical characteristics measured on the mixes are compatible with their use as a base course material. Moreover, the obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of lime in the mixes. In terms of environmental impacts, on the basis of leaching tests and according to available thresholds developed for the use of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash in road construction, the designed dredged mixes satisfy the prescribed thresholds.     

Environmental evaluation of reuse of by-products as road construction materials in Sweden

Reuse of by-products in road construction is most often environmentally evaluated from the narrow perspective of the material itself, i.e. the material level. In this article, we argue that the current mainstream environmental evaluation of reuse of by-products in road construction should use wider system boundaries. In order to illustrate the importance of system boundaries to the final result, three additional levels that complement the material level, are applied to the environmental evaluation of reuse of by-products. In total these four levels of evaluation are, firstly, the material itself, mainly studied by leaching tests, secondly, the road environment studied by substance flow analysis, furthermore, a narrow life-cycle perspective and, finally, the industrial system level that addresses the reuse of by-products in a broader sense. Methods and tools applied to different levels emphasise different environmental aspects and consequently they are appropriate for addressing different questions. However, especially for the evaluation of environmental aspects on the industrial system level, there is a need to develop the methods. To apply these four levels to the evaluation would broaden the knowledge about the environmental impacts of the reuse of by-products. We argue that current leaching tests have to be complemented by the broader system boundaries used in substance flow studies and in life-cycle assessments in order to discuss the use of resources and environmental impacts from a wider perspective.     

Environmental impact and mechanical behavior study of experimental road made with river sediments: recycling of river sediments in road construction

Dredging operations are necessary to maintain harbour activities, to prevent floods, and to restore ecosystem. These sediments after dredging are considered as waste, and their management is a complex problem. In the context of sustainable development, traditional solutions, such as dumping, will be more and more regulated. More than ever with the shortage of aggregates from quarries, dredged sediment could constitute a new granular material source for Civil Engineering domain. The principal objective of this works is to use dredged river sediments in the road construction. This study consists to determine the physical–chemical, geotechnical, and environmental impact characteristics of raw river sediments. To improve the mechanical performance of this river material be used in road construction, a treatment by the hydraulic binder in combination with granular corrector has been proposed. The impacts of the treated material on the environment have been evaluated. The last part of this study focuses on the realization of an experimental road with the designed mixes in the laboratory. The validation of mechanical characteristics and the study of the environmental impacts have been made on core samples from the experimental road. The monitoring of the quality of the percolating water and runoff water has been explored. The obtained results in laboratory and in situ are promising for potential use of river sediments in foundation layer of the road construction.     

Monotonic aspects of the mechanical behaviour of bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration and its potential use for road construction

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash is an atypical granular material because it may include industrial by-products that result from the incineration of domestic waste. The prospects for the beneficial use of this particular material mainly lie in the field of road construction, as a substitute for the traditional natural aggregates. However, its mechanical properties are still little known, particularly in term of stiffness and deformability, characteristics that are essential to the construction of a durable roadway. The purpose of this paper is to describe better the mechanical behaviour of this recycled material. In order to reach this objective, a large experimental campaign is presented. The first part of this paper presents and comments in detail on the results obtained from static monotonic tests. Oedometric and triaxial shear tests were performed on MSWI bottom ash both before and after treatment with a specific hydraulic binder. These tests allow specification of the mechanical characteristics of the MSWI bottom ash, such as the initial Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, the compressibility index, the friction angle, and the contracting or dilating behaviour of the material. The results reveal a mechanical behaviour similar to that of initially dense standard materials (sands, unbound granular materials) and a dependence on the applied average pressure, characteristic of the mechanical behaviour of granular media. More laboratory data on other samples of MSWI bottom ash are required to ensure that this comparison is statistically valid.     

Genotoxicity of substances extracted from construction materials

Construction waste such as road pavement and concrete is estimated to constitute about 50% of the total industrial waste in Japan, and the recycling of such material has recently become a prominent topic among construction engineers. It has also been suggested that various types of industrial waste be utilized as components of construction materials. This paper investigates the environmental safety of certain materials in terms of the elutions and genotoxicities of these substances. The substances extracted from some materials, such as emulsifier, ash, and sediment, were found to have genotoxic characteristics. The dose-related responses of the various materials and their genotoxic strengths are shown. Received: June 16, 1998 / Accepted: September 7, 1999     

Marine dredged sediments as new materials resource for road construction

Large volumes of sediments are dredged each year in Europe in order to maintain harbour activities. With the new European Union directives, harbour managers are encouraged to find environmentally sound solutions for these materials. This paper investigates the potential uses of Dunkirk marine dredged sediment as a new material resource for road building. The mineralogical composition of sediments is evaluated using X-ray diffraction and microscopy analysis. Since sediments contain a high amount of water, a dewatering treatment has been used. Different suitable mixtures, checking specific geotechnical criteria as required in French standards, are identified. The mixtures are then optimized for an economical reuse. The mechanical tests conducted on these mixtures are compaction, bearing capacity, compression and tensile tests. The experimental results show the feasibility of the beneficial use of Dunkirk marine dredged sand and sediments as a new material for the construction of foundation and base layers for roads. Further research is now needed to prove the resistance of this new material to various environmental impacts (e.g., frost damage).     

On the ASR and ASR thermal residues characterization of full scale treatment plant

In order to obtain 85% recycling, several procedures on Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) could be implemented, such as advanced metal and polymer recovery, mechanical recycling, pyrolysis, the direct use of ASR in the cement industry, and/or the direct use of ASR as a secondary raw material. However, many of these recovery options appear to be limited, due to the possible low acceptability of ASR based products on the market. The recovery of bottom ash and slag after an ASR thermal treatment is an option that is not usually considered in most countries (e.g. Italy) due to the excessive amount of contaminants, especially metals. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the characteristics of ASR and its full-scale incineration residues. Experiments have been carried out, in two different experimental campaigns, in a full-scale tyre incineration plant specifically modified to treat ASR waste.Detailed analysis of ASR samples and combustion residues were carried out and compared with literature data. On the basis of the analytical results, the slag and bottom ash from the combustion process have been classified as non-hazardous wastes, according to the EU waste acceptance criteria (WAC), and therefore after further tests could be used in future in the construction industry. It has also been concluded that ASR bottom ash (EWC – European Waste Catalogue – code 19 01 12) could be landfilled in SNRHW (stabilized non-reactive hazardous waste) cells or used as raw material for road construction, with or without further treatment for the removal of heavy metals. In the case of fly ash from boiler or Air Pollution Control (APC) residues, it has been found that the Cd, Pb and Zn concentrations exceeded regulatory leaching test limits therefore their removal, or a stabilization process, would be essential prior to landfilling the use of these residues as construction material.     

Behaviour of cement-treated MSWI bottom ash

MSWI bottom ash is the residue of combustion. The use of bottom ash in road construction is wide spread. French legislation forbids the disposal of resuable waste in special landfill from 2002. Moreover, "arrêté du 9 mai 1994" provides environmental criteria (leaching threshold, etc.), and evaluates this material according to utilisation in road construction. In such application, bottom ash is often treated with binder to improve its mechanical features. Nevertheless, bottom ash is subject to chemical problems. These problems induce an expansion which brings about cracking and finally road destruction. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the swelling potential of MSWI bottom ash prior utilisation. This is one of the aims of the European contract "Mashroad" (contract BRST CT97-5150). This study involved 4 years of work on cement-treated MSWI bottom ash. It examined different tests that show the importance of oxidation of aluminium in the swelling reaction and the efficiency of different treatments. Different binders were used in order to have different proportions of clinker. The kinetic aspects of aluminium-binder reaction were also studied. Finally, we present a special cell to measure the swelling pressure of these materials is presented.     

Geochemical anomalies from bottom ash in a road construction--comparison of the leaching potential between an ash road and the surroundings

A study was performed between June 2001 and December 2004 with the primary objective of assessing long-term leaching from municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash in a test road construction in relation to a reference road made up of conventional materials and the natural geochemical conditions in the surroundings. The metal leaching from the test road and the reference road was compared with the natural weathering in the regional surroundings for three time scales: 16, 80 and 1000 years. The results show that Cu and Zn cause a geochemical anomaly from the test road compared with the surroundings. The leaching of Cu from the test road is initially high but will decline with time and will in the long term be exceeded by natural weathering. Zn on the other hand has low initial leaching, which will increase with time and will in the long term exceed that of the test road and the surroundings by a factor of 100-300. For the other metals studied, Al, Na, K and Mg, there is only very limited leaching over time and the potential accumulation will not exceed the background values in a 1000 years.     

Stabilization and utilization of hospital waste as road and asphalt aggregate

This article reports the operational results of the effective utilization of hospital waste molten slag produced using a high-temperature melting system, and being operated at a hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. The hospital waste is incinerated and subsequently melted at 1200°C. Scanning election microscope (SEM)/EDX results showed that the slag produced after melting contained amounts of SiO₂, CaO, and Al₂O₃ in excess of 53%, 9%, and 16%, respectively. The results from a leaching analysis on the slag produced proved that the melting process had successfully stabilized the heavy metals. The use of this slag as an alternative material to replace conventional aggregates for road construction was studied. The results from aggregate and asphalt mix tests showed that the slag produced fulfills all the requirements of an alternative aggregate. The average asphalt content, or the optimum asphalt content to be mixed with hospital waste molten slag, was found to be about 5.53%.     

Products of steel slags an opportunity to save natural resources

In Germany, and in the most industrial countries, the use of blast furnace and steel slags as an aggregate for civil engineering, for metallurgical use and as fertiliser has a very long tradition. Since the introduction of the basic oxygen steel making furnace (BOF) process and the electric arc furnace (EAF) process the German steel industry started extensive research on the development of fields of application for BOF and EAF slags. These investigations have been mainly performed by Forschungsgemeinschaft Eisenhüttenschlacken e. V. (FEhS), the Research Association for blast furnace and steel slags. Today steel slags are well characterised and long-term experienced materials mainly used as aggregates for road construction (e.g. asphaltic or unbound layers), as armour-stones for hydraulic engineering constructions (e.g. stabilisation of shores), and as fertiliser for agriculture purposes. These multifarious fields of application could only be achieved because the steelworks influence the quality of slags by a careful selection of raw materials and a suitable process route. Furthermore, subsequent procedures like a treatment of the liquid slag, an appropriate heat treatment and a suitable processing have been developed to ensure that the quality of steel slags is always adequate for the end use. Depending on the respective field of application, the suitability of steel slags has to be proven by determining the technical properties, as well as the environmental compatibility. For this reason test methods have been developed to evaluate the technical properties especially the volume stability and the environmental behaviour. To evaluate the volume stability a suitable test (steam test) has been developed and the results from laboratory tests were compared with the behaviour of steel slags under practical conditions, e.g. in a road. To determine the environmental behaviour leaching tests have been developed. In the meanwhile most of these test methods are drafted or already accepted as a CEN standard and are used for a continuous quality control. Usually the suitability of steel slags is stated by fulfilling the requirements of national and/or international standards and regulations. Based on these standards and regulations in Germany in 1998 about 97% of the produced steel slags have been used as aggregates for road construction (e.g. as surface layer, road base and sub base for high trafficked roads), ways, earthworks, and armourstones for hydraulic structures. Consistent to the successful long-term experience not only products of steel slags but also products of blast furnace slags have been eliminated from the European Waste Catalogue and the European Shipment of Waste Regulation of the European Community, as well as from the lists of OECD for transfrontier movements by the decision of the OECD-Council from 21 September, 1995.     

Immobilisation of PAH in waste materials

This paper gives an overview of the results of a research project into the possibilities of immobilising polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), that are present in waste materials. The results show that with hydraulic binders the waste materials can be solidified. The PAH do still leach to a relatively high extent. However, this PAH leaching can be decreased by more than a factor 10 by means of the addition of a specific additive. The immobilisation product fulfils technological requirements for the use as a road base construction material, such as compressive strength.     

Environmental impact of ferrochrome slag in road construction

Vargon Alloys in Western Sweden is one of the largest producers of ferrochrome slag in Europe. Ferrochrome slag is a by-product from the production of ferrochrome, an essential component in stainless steel. Extensive tests have been carried out on the physical properties of the ferrochrome slag from Vargon Alloys and it was found to be highly suitable as road construction material. The composition and leaching tests of the ferrochrome slag show that the chromium content is high, 1-3%, although leaching under normal conditions is very low. With the exception of potassium (K), which had a potential leaching capacity (availability test) of around 16%, the leaching of chromium, nickel, zinc and other elements was just a few per cent. However, all these tests were conducted in the laboratory. What happens out in the field, under the influence of acid rain and biological activity, and how does this compare with the laboratory results? To answer this question an investigation was carried out to study the environmental impact of ferrochrome slag in roads that were built in 1994. The investigation includes soil sampling (total content and leachable amounts of metals) and groundwater analysis (filtered and non-filtered samples). In addition, a new method involving the bio-uptake of chromium and other metals by the roots of the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) was tested. The results show that there was a low migration of particles from the slag to the underlying soil and that the leaching into the groundwater was also low for all the elements analysed. However, there seemed to be a significant uptake of Cr by plants growing with their roots in the slag. An investigation of plant uptake was an important complement to laboratory leaching tests on alternative materials.     

Modeling hydrology and reactive transport in roads: the effect of cracks, the edge, and contaminant properties

The goal of this research was to provide a tool for regulators to evaluate the groundwater contamination from the use of virgin and secondary materials in road construction. A finite element model, HYDRUS2D, was used to evaluate generic scenarios for secondary material use in base layers. Use of generic model results for particular applications was demonstrated through a steel slag example. The hydrology and reactive transport of contaminants were modeled in a two-dimensional cross section of a road. Model simulations showed that in an intact pavement, lateral velocities from the edge towards the centerline may transport contaminants in the base layer. The dominant transport mechanisms are advection closer to the edge and diffusion closer to the centerline. A shoulder joint in the pavement allows 0.03 to 0.45 m(3)/day of infiltration per meter of joint length as a function of the base and subgrade hydrology and the rain intensity. Scenario simulations showed that salts in the base layer of pavements are depleted by 99% in the first 20 years, whereas the metals may not reach the groundwater in 20 years at any significant concentrations if the pavement is built on adsorbing soils.     

Estimating construction and demolition debris generation using a materials flow analysis approach

The magnitude and composition of a region’s construction and demolition (C&D) debris should be understood when developing rules, policies and strategies for managing this segment of the solid waste stream. In the US, several national estimates have been conducted using a weight-per-construction-area approximation; national estimates using alternative procedures such as those used for other segments of the solid waste stream have not been reported for C&D debris. This paper presents an evaluation of a materials flow analysis (MFA) approach for estimating C&D debris generation and composition for a large region (the US). The consumption of construction materials in the US and typical waste factors used for construction materials purchasing were used to estimate the mass of solid waste generated as a result of construction activities. Debris from demolition activities was predicted from various historical construction materials consumption data and estimates of average service lives of the materials. The MFA approach estimated that approximately 610–780 × 10⁶ Mg of C&D debris was generated in 2002. This predicted mass exceeds previous estimates using other C&D debris predictive methodologies and reflects the large waste stream that exists.     

Life cycle based risk assessment of recycled materials in roadway construction

This paper uses a life-cycle assessment (LCA) framework to characterize comparative environmental impacts from the use of virgin aggregate and recycled materials in roadway construction. To evaluate site-specific human toxicity potential (HTP) in a more robust manner, metals release data from a demonstration site were combined with an unsaturated contaminant transport model to predict long-term impacts to groundwater. The LCA determined that there were reduced energy and water consumption, air emissions, Pb, Hg and hazardous waste generation and non-cancer HTP when bottom ash was used in lieu of virgin crushed rock. Conversely, using bottom ash instead of virgin crushed rock increased the cancer HTP risk due to potential leachate generation by the bottom ash. At this scale of analysis, the trade-offs are clearly between the cancer HTP (higher for bottom ash) and all of the other impacts listed above (lower for bottom ash). The site-specific analysis predicted that the contaminants (Cd, Cr, Se and Ag for this study) transported from the bottom ash to the groundwater resulted in very low unsaturated zone contaminant concentrations over a 200 year period due to retardation in the vadose zone. The level of contaminants predicted to reach the groundwater after 200 years was significantly less than groundwater maximum contaminant levels (MCL) set by the US Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water. Results of the site-specific contaminant release estimates vary depending on numerous site and material specific factors. However, the combination of the LCA and the site specific analysis can provide an appropriate context for decision making. Trade-offs are inherent in making decisions about recycled versus virgin material use, and regulatory frameworks should recognize and explicitly acknowledge these trade-offs in decision processes.