Process for treating metal-contaminated materials
AssigneePhysical Sciences, Inc.
InventorsSrivats Srinivasachar, Joseph Morency
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for treating wastes contaminated by toxic metals and/or organic materials is disclosed. The process involves heating the metal-contaminated wastes to a temperature sufficient to volatilize the metals. This temperature is also high enough to destroy or volatilize organic contaminants. The metal vapors are contacted with a sorbent which is reactive with the metals and sequesters them, thereby forming a non-leachable complex which can be disposed as non-hazardous conventional waste.
Claims34
A process for treating waste, soils or other material contaminated with a metal in order to render the metal non-leachable, comprising:
- a. heating the waste, soils or other material to a temperature sufficient to volatilize the metal and to form a gas stream having the metal vapor and ash particles entrained therein;
- b. cooling the gas stream sufficiently to cause condensation of the metal vapor onto the surface of the ash particles;
- c. combining the metal-coated ash particles produced in step (b) with a sorbent which is reactive with the metal;
- and
- d. heating the combination formed in step (d) to a temperature sufficient to induce reaction between the metal and the sorbent thereby to produce an insoluble metal compound.
A process for treating wastes, soils or other materials contaminated with arsenic comprising:
- a. heating the waste, soils or other material to a temperature sufficient to volatilize the arsenic thereby forming a gas stream having arsenic vapor entrained therein;
- b contacting the gas stream containing arsenic vapor with a sorbent comprising a calcium or magnesium compound which reacts with the arsenic thereby removing it from the gas stream;
- and
- c heating the arsenic-containing sorbent formed in (b) to a temperature sufficient to induce reaction between the arsenic and the sorbent thereby to produce a water-insoluble arsenic compound.
A process for treating in situ waste, soils or other materials contaminated with metals to render the metals non-leachable wherein said waste, soils or other materials comprise a sorbent reactive with the metals, the process comprising:
- inducing a chemical reaction by heating the waste, soils or other materials to a temperature sufficient to transform the metal to reactive metal species or to volatilize the metals thereby forming metal vapors and maintaining said heating for a time and at a temperature sufficient to induce said reactive metal species or said vapors to chemically react with the sorbent to form a substantially non-leachable metal or metal-sorbent complex.
A process for treating waste, soils or other material contaminated with metals in order to render the metals non-leachable, comprising:
- a. combining the metal-contaminated waste, soils or other material with a sorbent which is chemically reactive with the metals;
- b. heating the combination formed in step (a) to a temperature sufficient to render the metals reactive or to volatilize the metals thereby forming metal vapors;
- and
- c. maintaining the heating for a time sufficient to induce a chemical reaction between the reactive metals or metal vapors thereby forming a substantially non-leachable metal-sorbent complex.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.