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CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LEACHATES FROM COAL SOLID WASTES
Citation:
Griffin, R., R. Schuller, J. Suloway, N. Shimp, AND W. Childers. CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LEACHATES FROM COAL SOLID WASTES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-80/039 (NTIS PB81114043), 1980.
Description:
The report gives results of the chemical and mineralogical characterization of coal solid wastes. The wastes included three Lurgi gasification ashes, mineral residues from the SRC-1 and H-Coal liquefaction processes, two chars, two coal-cleaning residues, and a fly-ash-and-water-quenched bottom ash (slag) from a coal-fired power plant. Leachates generated from the solid wastes at eight pH levels and under two different gas atmospheres were analyzed for more than 40 chemical constituents. Thermodynamic speciation of inorganic tons and complexes in solution were modeled. The modeling demonstrated that similar mineral phases controlled the aqueous solubility of the major ionic species for all wastes. Adsorption and co-precipitation of trace metals with iron, manganese, and aluminum oxides and hydroxides were thought to be the likely controls on trace metal concentrations in the leachates. A high degree of attenuation of the leachates constitutes by soils was observed. Soil properties controlled the degree of attenuation to a greater extent than did the chemical concentrations of the leachates. Results of acute 96-hour static bioassays using fathead minnows identified mortality as being caused by the combined effect of pH and total ionic strength of the leachate.