An Investigative Study on the Chemical, Morphological and Mineralogical Alterations of Dry Disposed.docVIP

An Investigative Study on the Chemical, Morphological and Mineralogical Alterations of Dry Disposed 　　1Fossil Fuel and Environmental Geochemistry Group, Department of Earth Sciences; University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa. 　　2Environmental Remediation and Water Pollution Chemistry Group, Department of Ecology and Resources Management, School of Environmental Studies, University of Venda. Private Bag, X5050, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa. 　　3Environmental and Nano Sciences Group, Department of Chemistry; University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa. 　　*Corresponding author. 　　E-mail: akinyemi70@ 　　Funded by SASOL/ESKOM, South Africa. 　　Received 10 January 2012; accepted 6 February 2012 　　Abstract 　　The hazardous elements associated with various physicochemical forms in coal fly ash are of environmental concern due to their leaching potential and subsequent contamination of surface and groundwater in the vicinity of the ash dump. Selective sequential extraction was performed on dry disposed fly ash samples from a coalfired power station in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The alteration of the chemical, morphological and mineralogical species of weathered fly ash during the selective sequential extraction was investigated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Nano-scan electron microscopy (NANOSEM) and X-ray powder diffraction(XRD). Insoluble residue from the water-soluble fraction is composed of amorphous alumino-silicate. The residues from exchangeable, carbonate and Fe and Mn fractions consisted mostly of amorphous alumino-silicate spheres with a lesser quantity of iron-rich spheres. The iron-rich spheres are surrounded by amorphous alumino-silicate spheres. The leaching behavior of trace metals (such as Ce, Y, Nb, Rb, U, and Tl) in weathered dry disposed fly ash was considered to have a dependency relationship with the components of SiO2, CaO, MgO, P2O5, and amount of unburned carbo