Characteristics and chemical speciation of waste copper slag

Li, Zhi; Ma, Guojun; Zhang, Xiang; Li, Jianli

doi:10.1007/s11356-020-11830-9

Research Article
Published: 06 January 2021

Characteristics and chemical speciation of waste copper slag

Zhi Li^1,2,
Guojun Ma^1,2,
Xiang Zhang^1,2 &
Jianli Li^1,2

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 20012–20022 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Waste copper slag contains abundant valuable metal element Fe, and residual elements such as Cu, As, Pb, Zn, and Mo. Simply stockpiling or landfilling would waste valuable metal resources and cause contamination due to the leachable harmful elements. In this paper, the HJ/T299-2007 test and TCLP test have been utilized to evaluate the leaching toxicity of waste copper slag, while the sequential extraction procedure was carried out to investigate the different chemical speciation and the bioavailability of the residual metal elements in the waste copper slag. The results show that Pb in the waste copper slag exceeds the regulatory value of TCLP in the leaching tests, which means that the waste copper slag may contaminate the surrounding environment. According to the characteristics of the waste copper slag, the residual metal elements are mainly wrapped by the fayalite or silicate matrix. Cu and Fe are mainly in the form of crystalline iron-manganese oxide by the sequential extraction procedure, while Mo, As, and Zn are mainly in the residual form. Pb mainly exists in the form of carbonate, which is easy to be extracted. The orders of the apparent mobility and potential metal bioavailability of the selected residual metals are Pb>Cu>Zn>As>Mo>Fe.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jingyoung Nam from University of Pretoria, Young Courtney and Gerry Wyss from Montana Technological University, for their help with leaching tests and MLA analysis, respectively.

Funding

The research is supported by Joint Research Fund of National Natural Science Foundation-China BaoWu Steel Group Co., Ltd. (No. U1960108) and Hubei Provincial Special Project on Technology Innovation (Foreign Scientific and Technological Cooperation) (No. 2017AHB042).

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Affiliations

The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China
Zhi Li, Guojun Ma, Xiang Zhang & Jianli Li
Key Laboratory for Ferrous Metallurgy and Resources Utilization of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China
Zhi Li, Guojun Ma, Xiang Zhang & Jianli Li

Authors

Zhi Li
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Guojun Ma
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Xiang Zhang
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Jianli Li
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Guojun Ma; methodology: Guojun Ma, Zhi Li, Xiang Zhang; formal analysis and investigation: Zhi Li; writing-original draft preparation: Zhi Li; writing-review and editing: Guojun Ma; Zhi Li, Jianli Li; funding acquisition: Guojun Ma; resources: Guojun Ma, Jianli Li; supervision: Guojun Ma, Xiang Zhang.

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Correspondence to Guojun Ma.

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Li, Z., Ma, G., Zhang, X. et al. Characteristics and chemical speciation of waste copper slag. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 20012–20022 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11830-9

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Received: 17 June 2020
Accepted: 23 November 2020
Published: 06 January 2021
Issue Date: April 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11830-9

Keywords

Copper slag
Residual elements
Characteristics
Sequential extraction
Leaching toxicity
Chemical speciation