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ADVANCES IN ENCAPSULATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF MERCURY CONTAMINATED HAZARDOUS WASTES
Citation:
Randall*, P AND S. Chattopadhyay. ADVANCES IN ENCAPSULATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF MERCURY CONTAMINATED HAZARDOUS WASTES. M. Fingas, S.H. Lin, C. Shackelford, G. Lyberatos (ed.), JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 114(1-3):211-223, (2004).
Description:
Although industrial and commercial uses of mercury have been curtailed in recent times, there is a demonstrated need for the development of reliable hazardous waste management techniques because of historic operations that have led to significant contamination and ongoing hazardous waste generation. The focus of this article is on the current state of encapsulation technologies that can be used to immobilize elemental mercury, mercury-contaminated debris, and other mercury-contaminated wastes, soils, or sludges. The range of encapsulation materials used in bench-scale, pilot-scale, and full-scale applications for
mercury-contaminated wastes are summarized. Several studies have been completed regarding application of sulfur polymer stabilization/solidificaton, chemically bonded phosphate ceramic encapsulation, and asphalt, polyester resins, synthetic elastomers, polysiloxane, sol-gels, Dolocrete TM, and carbon/cement mixtures. The primary objective of these encapsulation methods is to physically immobilize the wastes to prevent contact with leaching agents such as water. However, when used for mercury-contaminated wastes, several of these methods require a pretreatment of stabilization step to chemically fix mercury into a highly insoluble form prior to encapsulation. Performance data is summarized from the testing and evaluation of various encapsulated, mercury-contaminated wastes. Future technology development and research needs are also discussed.