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Investigation of plasma treatment for hazardous wastes such as fly ash and asbestos
Author(s) -
Inaba Tsuginori,
Nagano Masayoshi,
Endo Masao
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
electrical engineering in japan
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1520-6416
pISSN - 0424-7760
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6416(199902)126:3<73::aid-eej8>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - distilled water , fly ash , hazardous waste , materials science , waste management , asbestos , slag (welding) , metallurgy , plasma , environmental science , chemistry , composite material , chromatography , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
Hazardous wastes such as fly ash and asbestos can be melted by plasma treatment to convert them into blocks of vitrified slag resulting in a volume reduction by 49 to 65%. Vitrified slag of fly ash containing such heavy metals as Zn, Cu, and Fe has an extremely high resistance to water. Electric conductivity of the elution of 18.8 g of slag in 700 ml of distilled water is nearly the same as that of pure distilled water, being only about 0.1% of the electric conductivity of the solution of fly ash in distilled water. The surface of the molten asbestos becomes a hard shell without needlelike fibers, thus rendering asbestos safe for human health. As a result, plasma waste treatment can become a powerful tool for environmental protection. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 126(3): 73–82, 1999