Mineral fertilizers were prepared using three different types of sewage sludge incineration ash (SSA) and CaCO
3 by means of calcination. The raw mixtures with varied CaO contents were calcined in an electric furnace at different temperatures. To evaluate the fertilizer performance, water soluble SiO
2, citric acid soluble P
2O
5 and mineral composition were analyzed.
The results showed that the formation process and dissolution behavior of minerals varied depending on the composition of the raw SSA.
Calcining higher Al
2O
3 ash with a CaO content increased to 55.0% produced a mixture of gehlenite and Ca
14.92 (PO
4)
2.35 (SiO
4)
5.65, with citric acid solubility of P
2O
5 and water solubility of SiO
2 improved up to 98 and 86%, respectively. Calcining lower Al
2O
3 ash with a CaO content increased to 57.5% produced dicalcium silicate, with both citric acid solubility of P
2O
5 and water solubility of SiO
2 improved to over 98%.
Consequently, it was found that regardless of the chemical composition of raw SSA useful mineral fertilizers with high solubilities of P
2O
5 and SiO
2 could be obtained by adjusting the CaO content properly.
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