IMMOBILIZATION OF HEAVY METALS USING SOLIDIFICATION/STABILIZATION TREATMENT: A REVIEW

Environmental Engineering

Leaching of heavy metals is a huge problem for industries generated hazardous waste containing high amount of heavy metals and recovery of metals from waste is not feasible all the time so various technologies have been developed to convert hazardous waste into non-toxic form. Stabilization and solidification is one of the techniques used to convert hazardous waste into stabilized product. Stabilization and solidification are physicochemical processes widely used in management of hazardous waste. The terms solidification/stabilization and stabilization/solidification are often used interchangeably and are referred to as S/S. Both techniques are incorporated as one treatment method for immobilization of waste containing high amount of heavy metals using different binding material. Solidification/Stabilization iimproves the handling and physical characteristics of the waste and decrease the surface area across which transfer or loss of contaminants can occur. Binding materials like portland cement, geopolymers, lime, sand, clay, fly ash etc. are used in different research work until now. Thus, information obtained from different research papers this paper shows that cement based solidification is best suited for immobilization of metals like Cu, Zn, Fe, Cd, Ni etc. it also gives good strength to final solidified matrix. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) is probably the best method as far as leaching is concerned and 28 days is standard time period provided for hydration.

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