The Science of the Total Environment, 114 (1992) 185-193 185

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

Recycling of waste foundry sands

Uwe Lahl

Head of Environmental Administration of the City of Bielefeld, Umweltdezernat, Rathaus, 4800

Bielefeld, FRG

(Received November 5th, 1990; accepted January 18th, 1991)

ABSTRACT

Waste foundry sands are industrial wastes of important quantity. Because of the partially
very high contamination of these sands with polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), some of
them potent carcinogens, dumping of these sand in landfills without appropriate safety
measures, or use in road and landscape construction is very problematic. The concept of a
thermic-mechanical regeneration, which offers not only ecological, but also economic advan-
tages, is introduced.

Key words: waste foundry sands; recycling; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

INTRODUCTION

In former West Germany, waste foundry sands annually generated - 2

million tons: the largest component with 1.44 million tons being wet forming
sands containing cold-box, croning, hot-box and oil-sand. Cold resin sand
amounted to 360 000 tons/year and undecanted core residues to - 200 000
tons/year [1]. Foundry sands therefore belong to the quantitatively most im-
portant industrial wastes [2].
Within the last decades, waste foundry sands were not regarded as harm-
ful. In consequence, they were used for ground filling or landscape and road
construction, or disposed of in demolition land fills.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH RISKS

In the early eighties, first objections about this practice arose concerning
health and environmental risks due to undecanted (= mold) core sands. They
contained high concentrations of unused binders and other compounds such
as phenols. In reaction to this, most foundries in the F R G kept these mold

0048-9697/92/$05.00 © 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved

186 U. LAHL

TABLE 1

PAH in foundry sands [4]. All values in mg/kg (d.s.)

Sample Sum of PAH Sum of PAH a due to the Federal Drinking Water Act

1 47.8 21.5
2 175.9 68.4
3 105.5 48.5
4 20.9 8.8
5 28.5 5.5
6 228.9 83.0
7 49.0 11.9
8 128.0 57.5
9 2.1 0.2
10 0.4 0.1

aPAHs listed are fluoroanthene, benzo[b]fluoroanthene, benzo[k]fluoroanthene, benzo-

la]pyrene, benzo[g,h,0perylene, indeno[l,2,3-c,d]pyrene.

core sands separately from other waste sands and sent them to landfills with
higher safety standards.
Within the last few years, new doubts arose because mold core sands
showed high contamination with hazardous thermal reaction products, as
polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (a few hundred mg/kg) and especially
carcinogenic benzo[a]pyrene (see Table 1). The reason for this problem lies
in the chemistry of foundry. Form sands consist mainly of quartz sand and
are bound with special binder systems. This system is sometimes inorganic
such as sodium silicate, cement or bentonite or a clay which is able to swell;
however, mainly organic binders, especially organic polymers based on furan
or phenol resin are used, in amounts of 1-10% of the sand weight. These
resins may form PAH under the special pyrolytical conditions in foundry
process: a temperature of 300-700°C under reducing conditions. Generation
of PAH depends on type and amount of binder. Therefore, it is possible to
reduce this problem by varying the organic binders and their compounds [3].
Another source for the generation of PAH is a special carbon dust which is
added in small amounts (0.5-1%) to the sand, even to inorganically bound
ones, because it creates a certain brightness of the surface. Chemical con-
stitution and composition of the additives responsible for this reaction are
not completely known.
Table 1 shows an investigation performed due to a commission of the Ger-
man Foundry Union [4]. The ecotoxicological valuation of these and other
analytical results [5] have been discussed within the last few years [6]. The
RECYCLING OF WASTE FOUNDRY SANDS 187

TABLE 2

Analysis of PAH eluates following a German standard method following sedimentation by

centrifugation, in/~g/l [10]

Foundry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Phenanthrene 9.5 120 69 11 19 72 1.9 n.a.

Anthracene 0.4 17 5.5 1.4 0.8 14 0.4 n.a.
Fluoroanthene 13 71 100 8.6 23 140 4.6 3
Pyrene 3.5 61 35 41 5.9 45 3.3 n.a.
Benzo [a]anthracene 1.9 34 34 2.6 4.3 31 1.0 n.a.
+ chrysene
Benzo[b]fluoroanthene 2.0 43 30 4.4 6.2 39 2.0 1.0
Benzo[k]fluoroanthene 0.7 14 10 0.9 1.9 13 0.7 0.6
Benzo[alpyrene 0.5 20 8.4 0.8 1.3 18 0.8 0.4
Dibenzo[a,h]anthacene n.d. 1.8 1.2 n.a. n.a. 3.5 n.d. n.d.
Benzo[g,h,i]perylene + n.d. 27 8 14 1.9 43 n.a. 2
Indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene

Detection limit for each substance: 0.3 ~g/l. n.d. = not detectable, n.a. = not analyzed. None
of the compounds were detectable using the method of membrane filtration.

well k n o w n high toxicity a n d carcinogenic potential o f m a n y P A H s [7] and

the potentially high a m o u n t s o f P A H in f o u n d r y sand were n o t d o u b t e d . T h e
discussion focussed o n the q u e s t i o n - - with r e g a r d to the h i t h e r t o b r o a d l y
practised use o f these sands within l a n d s c a p e a n d r o a d c o n s t r u c t i o n - -
w h e t h e r these P A H were available, e.g. via the a q u e o u s p a t h or not [8]. T h e
m a t t e r in dispute was the q u e s t i o n o f h o w to m e a s u r e their a q u e o u s
availability. T w o c o m p e t i n g m e t h o d s s h o w e d great differences in their
results: following the m e t h o d with m e m b r a n e filtration P A H availability
seemed to be o n l y marginal [9], b u t the o t h e r m e t h o d using s e d i m e n t a t i o n
by centrifuging resulted in very high availability [10]. T h e results o f b o t h
m e t h o d s are s h o w n in T a b l e 2.
M e m b r a n e filtration is at the m o m e n t the official m e t h o d for s e p a r a t i o n
o f solid a n d liquid phases, b u t this p r o c e d u r e does not refer to c o n d i t i o n s in
practice. T h e y are simulated best by the c e n t r i f u g i n g / s e d i m e n t a t i o n m e t h o d .
W i t h r e g a r d to the d e m a n d s o f preventive e n v i r o n m e n t p r o t e c t i o n , the en-
v i r o n m e n t a l a u t h o r i t y o f the City o f Bielefeld h a d to take into a c c o u n t the
potential availability o f P A H f r o m waste f o u n d r y sands. T h e r e f o r e , f u r t h e r
use o f waste sands within l a n d s c a p e a n d r o a d c o n s t r u c t i o n c o u l d n o t be
tolerated any l o n g e r a n d was t h e r e f o r e s t o p p e d by a local administrative
measure.
188 u. LAHL

Our decision to stop waste foundry application in landscape and road con-
struction was supported by a development which took place independently
from this discussion. In 1988, the Hazardous Site Commission of
Northrhine-Westfalia set the limit for the need of sanitation measures for
contaminated sites to 1 mg benzo[a]pyrene (BAP) per kg soil (dry substance).
Of the waste sands analyzed (see Table 1) 80% exceeded this limit. Our own
investigations show even higher contamination with BAP in sands in
Bielefeld.
Bielefeld has been, and still is, a center of small-sized machine building in-
dustry within the FRG. In the area of and around Bielefeld, - 60 000 tons
of waste sand are generated annually. In the past, waste foundry sands were
not only disposed without safety demands, but were in addition used for
landscape construction. Some of these backfilled areas were later used for
settlement. In 1987/88, within our hazardous sites investigation program, we
detected a lot of waste foundry sands contaminated sites, e.g. a residential
area (2-3 acres) in the south of Bielefeld with soils highly contaminated with
PAH (up to 206 mg/kg) and especially BAP (up to 39 mg/kg) as a conse-
quence of waste foundry dumping [11]. The results of some soil analyses are
shown in Table 3.
About 200-300 people live directly on these contaminated soils. The local
authority of the City of Bielefeld had to recommend these residents not to
use their gardens for horticulture any more because of the risk of accumula-
tion of PAH and especially BAP in vegetables. The second recommendation
was not to allow children to play on the ground because of oral exposure
(dust, soil), especially for infants. It is not clear how this case will develop,
but it shows which great problems occur for people living on such a hazar-
dous site. Recently, several similar cases followed.

TABLE 3

PAH in soil samples [10]. All values in mg/kg (d.s.)

Sample No. $3/1 $4/1 $5/1

Fluoroanthene 1.50 1.80 0.9

Benzo[a]pyrene 0.78 0.95 39.0
Benzo [b]fluoroanthene 0.87 1.10 35.0
Benzo[k]fluoroanthene 0.36 0.44 16.0
Benzo[g,h,t]perylene 0.79 0.72 57.0
Indeno|l,2,3-c,d]pyrene 0.38 0.87 11.0
RECYCLING OF WASTE FOUNDRY SANDS 189

THE CONCEPT

At present, waste foundry sands from Bielefeld enterprises were in the past
disposed on an insufficiently secured demolition waste landfill. Within the
last 2 years, the Umweltbundesamt in Berlin [1] and the Land Office for
Water and Waste Management in Northrhine-Westfalia [11] pointed out,
that waste foundry sand disposal on demolition waste landfills could not be
tolerated in the long run. Therefore, the local authorities of Bielefeld had to
look for other possibilities for waste management. As the Federal Waste Law
demands reuse of wastes before disposal, sand regeneration seemed to be the
most appropriate waste management method.
The structure of foundry industry in and around Bielefeld is not homo-
geneous: there are 15-20 small-sized factories. Several decentralized regener-
ation plants seemed to be very difficult to realize. Therefore the local
authorities of Bielefeld supported the plan of a private investor to build up
a regional waste sand regeneration plant with special emphasis on local and
regional demands [12]. This plant is finished and started operating in early
1991.

Process description

As organically and inorganically bound sands cannot be treated in the

same process step, this plant follows the concept of separate 'lines', one for
organic, the other for inorganic sands.
After crushing below 4 mm, the used sand is stored in bunkers which serve
as capacity buffers between the linked process units. The next step is a
magnetic separation where iron particles are recovered. Then the sand is
preheated in a heat exchanger and fed to a fluidized bed reactor. Depending
on the type of binders within the sand, the temperature in the reactor is ad-
justed between 600 and 800°C, while all waste gases are burnt in a chamber
at 800°C at minimum in order to prevent PAH release by stack effluent. The
heated sand passes through another heat exchanger where it is cooled; its
caloric energy is recycled to the first heat exchanger for heating the next por-
tion of used sand. This process is performed continuously. The next process
unit is a counter current impact pulverizer. By the use of compressed air, the
sand grains are blown against each other. All impurities fixed to the sand
particle surface are removed, especially clay (bentonite). This unit is
necessary only for sands with inorganic binders.
After regeneration, the sand passes a multi-screening unit. Here it is split
into different fractions and stored in separate bins. Sand losses which occur-
red during the regeneration process as well as fines produced during the use
in the foundry molding circuit are replenished from separate bins containing
190 u. LAHL

different fractions of fresh sand. By a blending procedure, all kinds of mix-

tures of regenerated and fresh sand can be produced [13]. After treatment,
sand products are of such a high quality, that they can be used as core sands,
without great differences to new sands.
Following the recent results, organically bound sands will be reused up to
95%, inorganically bound to ~-- 80-85%. The costs for regeneration will
amount to 95-105 DM per ton, depending on sand quality. The price in-
cludes the regeneration itself and in addition the losses of fresh sand.

ARGUMENTS FOR REGENERATION

There are some important advantages of waste foundry sand regeneration

in comparison to disposal: such as waste disposal safety, protection of
resources and economy.

Waste disposal safety

Within the next few years in the FRG, landfill capacities are getting
smaller. On the Federal and on the Land level, there are efforts to classify
waste foundry sands as more hazardous than hitherto practised. As a conse-
quence, the annually arising 2 million tons of waste foundry sand have to
compete with about 20 million tons of residues and municipal wastes for
landfill capacities with the consequences of rising costs and an acceleration
in disposal capacity exhaustion. Furthermore, the federal authorities project
an ordinance concerning avoidance, abatement, reduction and recycling of
waste foundry sand. This ordinance will force foundry industry to look for
advanced techniques for waste recycling and reduction of contamination on
the level of each firm [13], as well as the binder producer to offer easy-to-
recycle resins and other additives.

Protection of resources

Sand of high quality used by foundry industry is a resource of limited

availability. Only sand pits at Haltern and Frechen in Northrhine-Westfalia
yield sand with the quality industry needs, e.g. cleanliness, hardness and
grain-size distribution. Sand regeneration and reuse can protect these
valuable resources from hasty pillage.

Economic advantages

Recycling can even today be less expensive than the actual practice.
Regeneration costs in Bielefeld will amount to 95-105 DM/ton, contracts
RECYCLING OF WASTE FOUNDRY SANDS 191

TABLE 4

D u m p i n g capacitites a n d costs for waste foundry sands. Results of an inquiry

Safe Inorganically Organically

disposal b o u n d sands b o u n d sands
capacitites costs costs
(DM/ton) (DM/ton)

Augsburg 4 years 12 12
Bayreuth 2 years 18 18
Borken -- 27 27
D a u n (Eifel) 13 years 47 47
Donnersbergkreis 2 years 12 12
Erftkreis 6 years 15 25
Hannover -- 33 33
Ingolstadt -- -- 103
Kassel 30 years 79 79
Konstanz -- 330
Lahn-Dill-Kreis -- 8 8
Leer 21 years 28 28
Liineburg 20 years 23 23
Main-Spessart-Kreis 10 years 40 40
Mannheim -- 40 40
Mayen-Koblenz 25 years 14 14
Neustadt-Aisch-Bad -- 6 8
Windsheim (Franken) a
Oberallg/iu -- 32 32
Osterrode -- 15 15
Rendsburg-Eckernf6rde 7 years 45 45
Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis 2 5 - 3 0 years 1! 11
Saarbriicken -- 35 45
Siegen-Wittgenstein 20 years 13 13
Sigmaringen 8 years 37 37
Stuttgart -- 60 60
Velbert/Mettmann 30 years 23 121
Weiden -- 35 35

Average for former 15 years 28 46

Western G e r m a n y

Bielefeld 5 years 12 60

aProjected increase o f costs for core sand: u p to 80 D M / t o n ( - - ) = no information.

192 u. LAHL

with 85-95 DM/ton seem to be possible. Prices for new sand amount to
30-35 DM/ton (without transportation costs). Substitution of new sand by
regenerates will result in final material costs of 50-70 DM/ton.
Transportation costs on the other hand can double the entire costs for
sand. Only for foundry industry in Northrhine-Westfalia, the transportation
costs to regional regeneration plant(s) would actually be in the same order
of magnitude as for transporting new sands from Haltern or Frechen. For
other foundry areas, especially in the north and south of Germany, the actual
saving of transportation costs by using regenerates from regional plants will
be considerable. Foundries in Hamburg or Wurzburg will save 40-50
DM/ton, and up to 65-90 DM/ton in the areas of Kiel, Nuernberg, Munich
and Constance. Calculating with a transportation costs' saving of 30-40
DM/ton following the use of regenerated sand, the additional financial
burden due to regional regeneration lies in the range of 10-40 DM/ton.
These additional costs have to be compared to the costs for dumping in land-
fills. The author's inquiry in 1990 concerning dumping taxes for waste sand
in different regions of the F R G show an average of 28 DM/ton and a max-
imum of 79 DM/ton for inorganically and 46 DM/ton on average and 330
DM/ton at maximum for organically bound waste sands (see Table 4).
It is not surprising, that in the regions concerned with disposal costs of >
100 DM/ton the interest of foundry industry in recycling technologies is ex-
traordinarily high. But even with regard to average costs, the costs for recycl-
ing lie within the frame of rentability.
Further investigations support the following forecast: within 1991 or 1992,
the costs for waste sand landfill will increase by - 20-30%. As a conse-
quence, waste foundry sand regeneration and reuse is the only reasonable
strategy, not only because of ecological, but especially because of economical
demands!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wishes to thank the Sandregenerierungsanlage Lage GmbH

(SRL), and especially Mr. Hamacher and Mr. Ueckert and the German
Foundry Union (Giessereiverband) for their help.

REFERENCES

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2 V. Stein, Baustoff-Recycling, 1 (1985) 27-30.
3 J. Winterhalter, H. Bautz, W. Siefer, Gicssereiforschung, 41, (1989) 66-76.
RECYCLING OF WASTE FOUNDRY SANDS 193

4 U. Kleinheyer et al., Giesserei, 74 (1987) 640-642.

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