XRF Analysis for Major and Minor Elements in Fly Ash of Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Using Powder Briquette Method

X-ray fluorescence analyses of 12 major and 6 minor components in alkali-washed fly ash of municipal solid waste were developed using a powder briquette method. Fly ash samples were ground for 80 min using a ball mill to prepare reproducible powder briquettes, when the resultant particles had a 12 gm modal diameter and gave good reproducibility (3.2%). The mixture of reagents was ground for 20 min by a ball mill after 80 min of mixing with a V-type mixing machine or 2 h of manual mixing using an alumina mortar. The calibration curves for 12 major components and 6 minor elements showed good linearity. About 1.1 g of a sample was packed into a polyvinyl ring (18 min inside diameter; 21 min outside diameter; 7 mm thickness) and pressed by pressure at 19.6 MPa for 1 min using a hand press. For the determination of Cl and Br, tube power was used under 1.0 kW (50 kV - 20 mA). The quantitative results of the main components showed good agreement with certified values of a coal fly ash standard reference material (NIST 1633b). The proposed method was applied to 18 components in fly ash. Fly ash of A and B mainly consisted of Al(2)O(3), SiO(2), Cl, and CaO. Fly ash of C consisted of Na(2)O, SO(4), Cl and K(2)O. Several thousand parts per million of Zn and Pb were contained in all fly-ash samples.