ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Physicochemical Properties and Composition
of Biomass Ash and Evaluating Directions
of its Applications
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Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Rzeszów University of Technology, Rzeszów, Poland
Submission date: 2017-10-03
Final revision date: 2017-11-14
Acceptance date: 2017-11-28
Online publication date: 2018-06-25
Publication date: 2018-07-09
Corresponding author
Jan Kalembkiewicz
Politechnika Rzeszowska, Wydział Chemiczny, Zakład Chemii Nieorganicznej i Analitycznej, al. Powstanców Warszawy 6, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2018;27(6):2593-2603
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ABSTRACT
We researched industrial wood ash in order to assess its posed threats and possible applications.
The ash is type S; due to the content of SiO2, CaO, Al2O3, Kb>2O, Fe2O3, Na2O, MgO, SO3, and TiO2 it is
alkaline (pH = 12.9) with small bulk density (<1.4 g/mL); and it is characterized by high fragmentation
and irregularly shaped grains (research SEM/EDS). It has a high cationic-exchange capacity
(56 mmol/100 g) and a negatively-charged surface (pH>pHPZC), which suggests the possibility of
sorption cations. Research of the structure of phases present in the ash (FT-IR method) and physical
or chemical changes with their accompanied thermal effects in the temperature range 25-900º
(TG/DTG method) indicate no degradation of aluminum-silicon skeletons. Metals occur inside and
in the surface layer of the grain (FAAS, SEM/EDS analyses). Research of fractionation of Cd, Co, Cr,
Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn (classic Tessier’s method) indicated high mobility among others (Co 28.44%,
Cr 20.49%, and Pb 16.51%), which poses a risk of environmental pollution. The obtained results indicate
2 directions of ash application: (i) limited environmental due to heavy metal and (ii) processing in
geopolymer.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.