Short-term leaching study of heavy metals from LD slag of important steel industries in Eastern India

Considering Linz-Donawitz (LD) slag as a waste material for its bulk utilisation, there is a possibility that heavy metals will leach to environment. It necessitates the study on physical, chemical, mineralogical and heavy metals leaching characteristic of LD slag. Short-term leaching procedures like batch leach test (BLT), toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), strong acid digestion test (SADT) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) shake test were carried out for assessing heavy metals leaching potentiality. As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, V and Zn were leached from LD slag from three major steel industries i.e. Roulkela, Bokaro and Tata Steel Plants of India and were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). Most of the heavy metals like Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn showed relatively lesser leachability. Toxic heavy metals like As, Cd, Se and V were not leached by BLT, TCLP as well as ASTM shake test and were below detection limit. Rourkela LD slag heavy metals leaching were relatively higher than Bokaro and Tata Steel Plant LD slag and were below permissible limit. The present study reflects about non-hazardous nature of LD slag.