Use of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash for the removal of hydrogen sulphide (H2S)

Abstract

Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a common malodorous gas causing many problems of odour and industrial atmospheric emissions potentially harmful to health. Québec City has mandated the Centre de Recherche Industrielle du Québec to determine the capacity of the bottom ash (BA) produced by its municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerator for the elimination of H2S. Tests carried out under controlled conditions (laboratory prototype consisting of three reactors containing respectively 10, 20 and 30 cm BA beds) over a total period of 1750 h (∼73 days) established that the elimination capacity of demetalized bottom ash produce by the Québec City MSW incinerator varies between 77 ± 13 and 121 ± 20 g H2S /kg dry BA. These results are considerably higher than those published by other authors and demonstrate the potential of this material for various industrial applications (i.e. treatment of landfill gas, pretreatment of biogas produced by anaerobic digestion, etc.) in accordance with the principles of industrial ecology.