The long-term leaching behavior of heavy metals in geopolymers and Portland cement bricks containing MSWI fly ash: A comparative study

Geopolymers was considered as an ideal alternative to cement solidification/stabilization for municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI FA). However, the long-term leaching behavior of heavy metals in geopolymers had attracted less attention. In this study, the long-term leaching behavior of heavy metals in geopolymers containing MSWI FA was investigated and compared with Portland cement bricks under various corrosion scenarios. The findings revealed a consistent trend of "slowly increasing - slowly decreasing - gradually stabilizing" in the pH changes in the effluent of all samples and the absence of corrosive risk in the utilization of geopolymers. The maximum pH values of the effluent were G2 (12.00) > G1 (11.90) > G3 (10.83) > C1 (9.67), suggesting that geopolymers were not corrosive in resource utilization. The long-term leaching behavior of heavy metals under different corrosion conditions could be divided into two stages, which included quick release in stage II and gradual stabilization in stage II. Compared with Portland cement bricks, the cumulative leaching concentration of heavy metals in geopolymers was lower, indicating less environmental risk. Due to the strongest corrosiveness from simulated acid rain (SAR), C2 and G2 exhibited significant compressive strength loss rates of 20.2 % and 9.25 %, respectively. In the leaching of CO2-saturated water (CSW), the leaching behavior of heavy metals was mainly regulated by the nucleation-dissolution trade-off of carbonates, however the dissolution mechanism of heavy metals in SAR could be summarized as follows: (1) corrosion/replacement of H+, and (2) counter-ion effect. this study will promote the resource utilization of MSWI FA. In a word, this work systematically studied the long-term environmental risk of geopolymers, which was beneficial to the resource utilization of MSWI FA.