Leaching characteristics and stability assessment of sequestered arsenic in flue dust based glass.

Arsenic (As), a toxicant, present in flue dust, tailings, and mine drainages generated from mineral processing and smelting processes represents high environmental risk due to its high mobility. Around 42-50% As is found in flue dust in the form of AsO. The vitrification of As results in the formation of stable inert glass material and supposed to reduce the risk of As release to the environment. In this study, a glass material produced by vitrification of As bearing flue dust via DST GlassLock™ Process was received from Dundee Sustainable Technologies, Canada and was subjected for As stability assessment using United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaching methods-1311,1312,1313,1314,1315 and 1316. The released arsenic concentration was found to be less than the recommended TCLP hazardous waste limit for arsenic i.e., 5 mg/L in most of the test conditions. The experimental data were analyzed using LeachXS Lite™, a data management software that showed the goodness of the DST GlassLock™ Process for As stabilization and safe landfill deposition of the resulting product.