1998 Volume 11 Issue 4 Pages 363-372
Multielement determination of major-to-trace elements in city waste and indus trial waste incineration ash samples has been carried out by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. A coal fly ash standard reference material (NIST SRM 1633b) was analyzed in order to evaluate accuracy and precision in the present analytical method . The sample was decomposed by an alkali fusion method using LiBO2 as fusing agent. In the present experiment, about 50 elements at the major-to-trace level (Si : 23.0%-In : 165 ng/g) could be determined by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. The observed values were in good agreement with the certified and non-certified values informed from NIST . The LiBO2 fusion method is, thus, suitable for the determination of major-to-trace elements in fly ash samples. The present method was applied to the analysis of city waste incineration ash (BCR No.176) and two industrial waste incineration fly ash (IWIFA) samples collected from electrostatic precipitators of two industrial waste incinerators. Although the concentrations of Si, Al, Fe, Th and U in the city waste incineration ash and IWIFA samples were lower than those in the coal fly ash, the chalcophile elements (Cu, Zn, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb and Pb) were significantly enriched by about 100-10, 000 times in those samples. These results suggest that the elemental compositions of the fly ash samples characteristically reflect those of the industrial waste materials subjected to incineration.
