Highly efficient carbonation and dechlorination using flue gas micro-nano bubble for municipal solid waste incineration fly ash pretreatment and its applicability to sulfoaluminate cementitious materials

Abstract

Cement production is a primary source of global carbon emissions. As a hazardous waste, municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI-FA) can be pretreated as a cementitious and effective carbon capture material. This study proposes an efficient carbonation dechlorination pretreatment and resource recovery strategy using flue gas micro-nano bubble (MNB) to wash MSWI-FA. The results showed that the flue gas MNB water washing reaction solution inhibited CaCO₃ boundary layer blocking and adsorption on NaCl and KCl leaching. Under low water-to-solid ratio and CO₂ concentration conditions, two-step washing reduced the MSWI-FA chlorine content to <1%, improving the dechlorination effect by 19.72% compared to conventional carbonation. The flue gas MNB water accelerated the precipitation of Ca²⁺ and Ca(ClO)₂ in the form of calcite. The higher the CO₂ concentration in the flue gas MNB, the better the fragmentation and purification of the MSWI-FA shell, leading to improved dechlorination and CO₂ fixation. Under optimized conditions, the mean particle size of MSWI-FA decreased by 47.82%, and the CO₂ fixation rate reached 73.80%, with a 58.35% increase in the washing carbonation rate. MSWI-FA pretreated by flue gas MNB washing was used as both the raw material and supplementary cementitious material for sulfoaluminate cementitious (SAC) material, exhibiting excellent compressive strength and heavy metal stabilization. The maximum compressive strength of the MSWI-FA-based SAC material cured for 28 d reached 130 MPa. Cr leaching was inhibited with increased hydration time, and the leaching concentration was far below the standard limit.

Keywords: Carbonization washing dechlorination; Cementitious materials; Flue gas MNB; Municipal solid waste incineration fly ash; Solubilization fixation.