Waste stabilization/solidification of an electric arc furnace dust using fly ash-based geopolymers

The stabilization/solidification (S/S) of a carbon steel electric arc furnace (EAF) dust containing hazardous metals such as Pb, Cd, Cr or Zn using geopolymerization technology is described in this paper. Different reagents such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium silicate, potassium silicate, kaolinite, metakaolinite and blast furnace slag have been used. Mixtures of EAF waste with these geopolymeric materials and class F fly ash have been processed for studying the potential of geopolymers as waste immobilizing agents. Compressive strength tests and leaching tests for determining the efficiency of heavy metal immobilisation have been carried out. Comparison of fly ash-based geopolymer systems with classic Portland cement stabilization methods has also been accomplished. Compressive strength values far better than those achieved by hydraulic S/S methods were easily obtained by geopolymer solids at 28 days. Regarding leachability, the geopolymer S/S solids also manifested in general a better behaviour, showing very promising results.