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Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry

The chemical composition of coal ash is highly heterogeneous and dependent on the origin of the source coal, combustion parameters, and type and configuration of air pollution control devices. This heterogeneity results in uncertainty in the evaluation of leaching potential of contaminants from coal...

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Autores principales: Schwartz, Grace E., Hower, James C., Phillips, Allison L., Rivera, Nelson, Vengosh, Avner, Hsu-Kim, Heileen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6034393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29983540
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ees.2017.0347
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author Schwartz, Grace E.
Hower, James C.
Phillips, Allison L.
Rivera, Nelson
Vengosh, Avner
Hsu-Kim, Heileen
author_facet Schwartz, Grace E.
Hower, James C.
Phillips, Allison L.
Rivera, Nelson
Vengosh, Avner
Hsu-Kim, Heileen
author_sort Schwartz, Grace E.
collection PubMed
description The chemical composition of coal ash is highly heterogeneous and dependent on the origin of the source coal, combustion parameters, and type and configuration of air pollution control devices. This heterogeneity results in uncertainty in the evaluation of leaching potential of contaminants from coal ash. The goal of this work was to identify whether a single leaching protocol could roughly group high-leaching potential coal ash from low-leaching potential coal ash, with respect to arsenic (As) and selenium (Se). We used four different leaching tests, including the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Protocol (TCLP), natural pH, aerobic sediment microcosms, and anaerobic sediment microcosms on 10 different coal ash materials, including fly ash, lime-treated ash, and flue gas desulfurization materials. Leaching tests showed promise in categorizing high and low-leaching potential ash materials, indicating that a single point test could act as a first screening measure to identify high-risk ash materials. However, the amount of contaminant leached varied widely across tests, reflecting the importance of ambient conditions (pH, redox state) on leaching. These results demonstrate that on-site geochemical conditions play a critical role in As and Se mobilization from coal ash, underscoring the need to develop a situation-based risk assessment framework for contamination by coal ash pollutants.
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spelling pubmed-60343932018-07-06 Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry Schwartz, Grace E. Hower, James C. Phillips, Allison L. Rivera, Nelson Vengosh, Avner Hsu-Kim, Heileen Environ Eng Sci Original Articles The chemical composition of coal ash is highly heterogeneous and dependent on the origin of the source coal, combustion parameters, and type and configuration of air pollution control devices. This heterogeneity results in uncertainty in the evaluation of leaching potential of contaminants from coal ash. The goal of this work was to identify whether a single leaching protocol could roughly group high-leaching potential coal ash from low-leaching potential coal ash, with respect to arsenic (As) and selenium (Se). We used four different leaching tests, including the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Protocol (TCLP), natural pH, aerobic sediment microcosms, and anaerobic sediment microcosms on 10 different coal ash materials, including fly ash, lime-treated ash, and flue gas desulfurization materials. Leaching tests showed promise in categorizing high and low-leaching potential ash materials, indicating that a single point test could act as a first screening measure to identify high-risk ash materials. However, the amount of contaminant leached varied widely across tests, reflecting the importance of ambient conditions (pH, redox state) on leaching. These results demonstrate that on-site geochemical conditions play a critical role in As and Se mobilization from coal ash, underscoring the need to develop a situation-based risk assessment framework for contamination by coal ash pollutants. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2018-07-01 2018-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6034393/ /pubmed/29983540 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ees.2017.0347 Text en © Grace E. Schwartz et al. 2018; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Schwartz, Grace E.
Hower, James C.
Phillips, Allison L.
Rivera, Nelson
Vengosh, Avner
Hsu-Kim, Heileen
Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title_full Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title_fullStr Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title_full_unstemmed Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title_short Ranking Coal Ash Materials for Their Potential to Leach Arsenic and Selenium: Relative Importance of Ash Chemistry and Site Biogeochemistry
title_sort ranking coal ash materials for their potential to leach arsenic and selenium: relative importance of ash chemistry and site biogeochemistry
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6034393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29983540
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ees.2017.0347
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