Vitrified medical wastes bottom ash in cement clinkerization. Microstructural, hydration and leaching characteristics

Highlights: • Medical wastes incinerator bottom ash was vitrified (VMBA) with recycled glass. • VMBA was used in the raw meal for Portland cement clinkers production. • All syntheses satisfied the requirements for strength class 52.5 (EN 197-1). • Trace elements of VMBA and hydrated cements were well below regulatory limits. The present investigation focuses on the utilization of medical wastes incineration bottom ash (MBA), vitrified with soda lime recycled glass (SLRG), as an alternative raw material in cement clinkerization. Bottom ash is recovered from the bottom of the medical wastes incineration chamber, after being cooled down through quenching. It corresponds to 10–15 wt% of the initial medical wastes weight and since it has been classified in the category of hazardous wastes, its safe management has become a major environmental concern worldwide. MBA glasses of various syntheses were initially obtained during the MBA vitrification simultaneously with various amounts of silica scrap (20, 25 and 30 wt% correspondingly). The produced MBA glasses were in turn used for the production of Portland cement clinker, after sintering at 1400 °C, thus substituting traditional raw materials. Both evaluation of vitrification and sintering products was carried out by chemical and mineralogical analyses along with microstructure examination. The final cements were prepared by clinkers co-grinding in a laboratory ball mill with appropriate amounts of gypsum (≈5.0 wt%) and the evaluation of their quality was carried out by determining setting times, standard consistency, expansibility and compressive strength at 2, 7, 28 and 90 days. Finally, the leaching behaviour of the vitrified MBA and hydrated cements, together with the corresponding of the "as received" MBA, was further examined using the standard leaching tests of the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and the EN 12457-2. According to the obtained results, the quality of the produced cement clinkers was not affected by the addition of the vitrified MBA in the raw meal, with the trace elements detected in all leachates measured well below the corresponding regulatory limits.