Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Recycled use of municipal solid waste incinerator fly ash and ferronickel
slag for eco-friendly mortar through geopolymer technology
Wu-Jian Long a, b, c, *, Jun-kai Peng a, c, Yu-cun Gu c, d, Jin-lin Li a, c, Biqin Dong a, b, c, Feng Xing a, c,
Yuan Fang a, b, c
a
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Durability for Marine Civil Engineering, Shenzhen, 518060, Guangdong, PR China
b
Key Lab of Coastal Urban Resilient Infrastructure, MOE, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, Guangdong, PR China
c
College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, Guangdong, PR China
d
Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, 65401, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Bôas de Due to the rapid urbanization and increased population, the production of municipal solid waste incineration fly
Almeida ash (MSWI-FA) has become enormous and attracted attention worldwide. This study feasibly utilizes MSWI-FA as
an immobilization host to co-dispose of ferronickel slag (FNS) through geopolymer technology. Due to the high
Keywords: content of heavy metals in MSWI-FA and FNS, the leachate of the geopolymer was tested with two leaching
Municipal solid waste incineration
methods, in terms of acetic acid buffer solution method (AAM) and sulphuric acid & nitric acid method (SNM).
Fly ash
Results showed that the leaching concentrations of heavy metal ions in geopolymers were less than the upper
Ferronickel slag
Co-disposal limit of Chinese landfill standard. For instance, the value of Cu, Zn, and Cr leachate in geopolymers are far lower
Geopolymer than 100, 100, and 5 mg/L. Furthermore, various microstructural tests were performed to evaluate the stabili­
zation/solidification behavior of MSWI-FA and FNS geopolymer, including electrochemical impedance spec­
troscopy (EIS) test, scanning electron microscope (SEM)/energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction
(XRD) test, and mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP) test. The EIS results showed that geopolymer with the
combination of 60 wt% MSWI-FA, 20 wt% ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and 20 wt% silica fume
(SF) exhibited a compact and dense microstructure, which was beneficial to the physical encapsulation of heavy
metal ions. The MIP result also confirmed that the capillary pore structure of geopolymer is also developed. The
SEM, EDS, and XRD results showed that the C-A-S-H, Friedel’s salts, and NaCl were the main hydration products
in geopolymers. The C-A-S-H was capable contributed to improve the physical encapsulation of heavy metal ions.
Friedel’s salts were observed to adsorb heavy metal ions on its surface and had the good binding capacity of
heavy metal ions. Based on these findings, the feasibility of geopolymers are confirmed, which promote the co-
disposal of MSWI-FA and FNS and provide valuable information on the MSWI-FA based construction materials.

1. Introduction
The worldwide production of municipal solid waste (MSW) has
reached an enormous scale due to the rapid urbanization and increased
population (Diliberto et al., 2020; Geng et al., 2020). The production
magnitude of MSW is estimated at over 2 billion tons annually which
needs to be properly treated (Daniel Hoornweg, 2012; Gutberlet, 2015).
In the past decades, many methods have been developed to lower the
environmental impact of MSW, such as landfill, compositing, and
incineration (Huber et al., 2018). The incineration process has three
main advantages: (i) the reduction of MSW by 90% in volume, 70% in
mass, and nearly 100% in organic matter content; (ii) the utilization of
the energy from the waste incineration; (iii) the effectiveness on
disposing of mass MSW (Caprai et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2014). With
the benefits of saving valuable landfill space and promoting energy
recycling, municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) has been exten­
sively applied in many countries and regions (Yu et al., 2020).
However, MSWI generates a huge amount of waste by-products, i.e.
bottom ash and fly ash, accounting for 5–30 wt% of the total weight of
municipal solid waste (Yang et al., 2019). Noticeably, the MSWI-FA has
been considered hazardous waste due to the presence of approximately
3–5 wt% heavy metal ions (Zhang, S. et al., 2020). The production of

* Corresponding author. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, Guangdong, PR China.
E-mail address: longwj@szu.edu.cn (W.-J. Long).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127281
Received 25 November 2020; Received in revised form 8 March 2021; Accepted 22 April 2021
Available online 4 May 2021
0959-6526/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W.-J. Long et al.
municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI-FA) is estimated to
reach 6 million tons annually in China (Sun et al., 2016). Therefore, the
disposal of MSWI-FA becomes urgent. Some treatments including ther­
mal treatment, chemical and physical separation, and solid­
ification/stabilization (S/S) have been proposed to properly dispose of
MSWI-FA (Luo et al., 2019). Among these methods, S/S is the most
widely applied in the treatment of MSWI-FA due to the effective
immobilization of heavy metals and low cost at disposing of mass haz­
ardous waste. The S/S works through physically encapsulated and
chemically fixed hazardous materials inside the matrix in hydraulic
binders (Fan et al., 2018). Although ordinary Portland cement is the
commonly used hydraulic binder in S/S practice, its production release
0.7t CO2 per tons and is responsible for global CO2 emissions by
approximately 5–8% (Scrivener, 2014). Consequently, it is urgent to
find alternative low-carbon and high-efficiency methods to dispose of
MSWI-FA.
Geopolymer, also known as alkali-activated cementitious materials,
has been proposed to dispose of MSWI-FA (Cristelo et al., 2020b; Shiota
et al., 2017; Tian et al., 2020; Xuan et al., 2019). The concept of geo­
polymers is to activated raw materials with high alkaline activators,
which form binders similar to ordinary Portland cement (Wang et al.,
2020). The high alkaline activator is usually selected with NaOH or
Na2SO3 and the raw materials are usually selected with aluminosilicates
ash with fine particle size (Zhang, P. et al., 2020). It has been proved that
geopolymers can stably encapsulate heavy metal ions inside the
three-dimension network of cementitious hydration products (Cristelo
et al., 2020b; Huang et al., 2019).
Since the MSWI-FA exhibits pozzolanic properties, the MSWI-FA is
considered as the potential raw material of geopolymer (Liu et al.,
2020). One approach is to make geopolymers by co-disposing MSWI-FA
with other solid waste, such as red mud, sewage sludge, dehydrated
pyrophyllite, (Chen, P. et al., 2019; Cyr et al., 2012; Geng et al., 2020; Li
et al., 2019; Shiota et al., 2019), or with other pozzolanic waste, such as
blast furnace slag (GGBS), fly ash, metakaolin, silica fume (SF) (Jin et al.,
2016; Liu et al., 2018; Qian et al., 2006). The other approach (Cristelo
et al., 2020a; Kan et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2010) is to
directly use MSWI-FA as raw material (also known as precursors in
geopolymer). Cristelo et al. (2020a) has reported that the overall per­
formance including mechanical properties, durability, and leachability
properties of MSWI-FA based geopolymer paste was better than
cement-based reference. And the main hydration products of
alkali-activated MSWI-FA hardened paste is combined phases of hydrous
alkali-aluminosilicate and calcium silicate hydrate (C–S–H) (Tian et al.,
2020). Therefore, manufacturing the geopolymers based on MSWI-FA
can not only immobilize the heavy metals of MSWI-FA but also bene­
fits the utilization of MSWI-FA as construction materials.
Ferronickel slag (FNS) is considered as the third-largest solid waste
in China and the annual production exceeds 30 million tons in china (Gu
et al., 2020; Saha et al., 2018). However, the utilization rate of FNS is
only 10% and the rest is mostly sent to landfills (Xi et al., 2018). In the
nickel-metal melting plant, the course mineral, such as sulphide ores and
garnierite ores, is melted to extract nickel and then the residue is
naturally air-cooled or water quenched to form FNS (Polyakov, 2013).
Previous studies (Nuruzzaman et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2019) showed that
FNS was feasibly used in concrete or mortar as aggregate, which showed
superior performance in workability, mechanics, and durability. For
instance, Nuruzzaman reported that FNS was used in high strength
self-compacting concrete as fine aggregate. The concrete can meet the
workability criteria of self-compacting concrete, and the mechanical and
durable properties were increased by the addition of FNS (Nuruzzaman
et al., 2020). It should be noticed that metals including Ni, Cr, and Mn
containing in FNS exhibit potential risk to the environment and human
health (Cao et al., 2020). Therefore, it is feasible to use FNS as the
aggregate in construction materials, which effectively dispose of the
solid waste.
Manufacturing MSWI-FA and FNS based geopolymer mortar has two
2
Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281
major advantages. Firstly, the cost of dispose of MSWI-FA and FNS
decrease a lot since manufacturing this eco-friendly geopolymer does
not consume too much energies and resources (Zhang et al., 2020; Zhang
et al., 2020). Then, this work provides guide information on MSWI-FA
and FNS based construction materials which is a potential substitution
of Ordinary Portland Cement. It is valuable because he magnitude of
newly construction industry dramatically increased yearly and many
raw materials such as stone, sand, and other mineral resources have
become overexploited (Wang et al., 2020).
Therefore, this study aims to co-dispose of MSWI-FA and FNS into
eco-friendly mortar through geopolymer technology. The mortar was
prepared with a binder of alkali-activated MSWI-FA and fine aggregate
of FNS. Furthermore, the GGBS and SF were partly replaced MSWI-FA to
strengthen the performance and to assure the immobilization. Two kinds
of toxicity characteristic leaching procedures including AAM and SNM
were employed to reveal leaching performance in acid rain environment
and landfill leachate environment. The mechanical performance was
accessed by a compressive strength test. The microstructural charac­
teristic was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/elemental
spectral scanning (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and mercury
intrusion porosimeter (MIP) analysis. Electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS) analysis was carried out to get the electrochemical
properties of geopolymers. The S/S mechanism of MSWI fly ash-based
geopolymer as an immobilization host was discussed by synthetically
analysis obtained results. The study can promote the application of
MSWI-FA as an immobilization host material and provide a valuable
guide on the co-disposal of MSWI-FA and FNS.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Raw materials
In this study, MSWI-FA and FNS were collected from a municipal
waste incineration plant in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China, and a
smeltery in the same region, respectively. The GGBS and SF (Weishen
Co., Ltd., China) were added as supplementary cementitious materials
and the deionized water was applied as mixed water in this study. The
appearance of MSWI-FA, FNS, GGBS, and SF are presented in Fig. 1. The
chemical composition of MSWI-FA, GGBS, and SF was determined by an
X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF, S4 PIOMEER, Germany’s Bruker
AXS) and listed in Table 1. The physical properties of MSWI-FA, FNS
were listed in Table 2. The particle size distribution of MSWI-FA, GGBS,
and SF were determined by Mastersizer (Mastersizer 2000, Malvern, UK)
and were plotted in Fig. 2.
The fineness modulus of FNS fine aggregate is 3.0 and ranges from
0.1 mm to 4.75 mm. The gradations of FNS fine aggregate was matched
to standard sand according to Chinese standard GB/T 6003 (2012) and is
showed in Fig. 2. The chemical composition of FNS mainly includes 49.1
wt% SiO2, 28.2 wt% MgO, and 10.1 wt% Fe2O3. The heavy metals in
FNS are MnO and Cr2O3 with a mass content of 0.93 and 2.08,
respectively.
The alkali activation was selected with a mixture of sodium hy­
droxide (Guanghua Technology Co., Ltd., Shantou, Guangdong, China)
and liquid sodium silicate solution (Shengjing Ceramic Materials CO.,
Ltd., Zhaoqing, Guangdong, China). The chemical and physical prop­
erties of the sodium silicate solution are presents in Table 3.
2.2. Mix design and preparation
The mix proportions of geopolymer are listed in Table 4. After pre­
liminarily mixing the raw materials, the alkali activation was added into
the mixture and stirred well to obtain a uniform paste. Then the paste
was cast into a mold and was demoulded after curing for 24 h at stan­
dard curing condition with relative humidity no less than 90% and
temperature of 25 ± 2 ◦ C according to ASTM C305. The samples were
then moved to a standard curing room for a specific time at 7 days and
W.-J. Long et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

Fig. 1. Appearance of MSWI-FA, FNS, GGBS, and SF.

Table 1
Chemical composition of MSWI-FA, FNS, GGBS, and SF (wt%).
CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 MgO SO3 K2O Na2O Cl ZnO PbO CuO P2O5 TiO2 BaO

MSWI-FA 40.66 3.42 0.73 0.62 0.88 5.13 6.34 12.18 27.43 1.05 0.12 0.13 0.24 0.21 0.14
GGBS 39.81 31.86 16.53 0.43 6.89 0.04 0.54 0.33 0.01 1.23
SF 0.49 92.26 0.89 1.97 0.96 0.33 1.31 0.42

2.3.2. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) test

Table 2
TCLP test was used to detect the leaching characteristic of heavy
Physical properties of MSWI-FA, FNS, GGBS, and SF.
metal ions according to Chinese standard HJ/T 299 and Chinese stan­
Materials MSWI- GGBS SF Materials FNS Standard dard HJ/T 300. The methods in these two standards were named as
FA Sand
acetic acid buffer solution method (AAM) and sulphuric acid & nitric
Specific 5430 431 22190 Apparent 3120 2630 acid method (SNM), which simulate the leaching of waste in landfill
Surface density (kg/ leachate and acid rain pollution, respectively. The former and latter
Area m3)
(m2kg− 1)
buffer solutions were using acetic acid diluent with a pH value of 2.88 ±
Medium 19.02 11.85 67.48 Bulk density 1640 1490 0.05 and sulphuric & acid nitric acid mixture (mass ratio of 3:2) diluent
Diameter (kg/m3) with a pH value of 3.20 ± 0.05, respectively. The broken specimens were
(um) crushed to pass through a 5–9.5 mm sifter and soaked in the buffer so­
Water 4.6 0.1 0.1 Compact 1970 1580
lution with a liquid-solid ratio of 20:1. After 18 h tumbling with a rotary
Content density (kg/
(%) m3) shaker (30 ± 2 r/min at 23 ± 2 ◦ C), the mixture of waste and buffer
Void 37 40 solution was filtered and measured with an inductively coupled plasma
Fraction mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
(mass%)
pH 8 7.5
Water 0.5 0.55
2.3.3. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis
Content (%) The EIS measurement was carried out to obtained the electro­
chemical impedance response of specimens under an applied alternating
electrical field. Before the test, the specimens (after 28 days curing) were
28 days before the test. immersed in saturated Ca(OH)2 solution for 1 week at standard curing
conditions, which ensures the conductivity of specimens. After immer­
2.3. Testing methodology sion, the cubic specimens with a length of 10 mm were placed at the
interlayer of two parallel electrodes placed and applied electrical field
2.3.1. Compressive strength test with a frequency range between 0.01 Hz and 10 MHz. Under the elec­
A compressive test was carried out to assess the mechanical perfor­ trical field, the machine gives the corresponding impedance of speci­
mance of geopolymer according to Chinese Standard (GB/T 17671- mens at a certain frequency. The impedance of cementitious materials is
1999). The specimens are 40 × 40 × 40 mm cubes. After curing for 7 characterized by the Randles circuit model Rs (Q1(Rct1W1)) (Q2(Rct2W2))
and 28 days, three samples in each mix proportion were tested by an in previous studies (Dong et al., 2016; Long et al., 2018b, 2019). It
electronic universal testing machine (YZH-300) with a 2.4 kN/s loading consists of three circuit elements including the electrical resistance of
rate. the pore electrolyte (Rs), the electrochemical reaction that occurs inside
the solid/liquid double phase (Q1(Rct1W1)), and the electrical resistance

3
W.-J. Long et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

Fig. 2. Particle size distribution: (a) MSWI-FA, GGBS, and SF and (b) aggregate gradations of FNS and standard sand.

sieved with a 0.075 mm sifter before the test. A D8 ADVANCE instru­

Table 3
ment (Bruker AXS) was applied with a scanning range of 5◦ –60◦ (2θ) at a
Chemical and physical properties of sodium silicate solution.
step size of 0.02◦ s− 1 (working voltage 40 kV and current 30 mA).
sodium silicate solution

H2O (wt%) 63.4 2.3.6. Mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP) analysis

Na2O (wt%) 8.8 The MIP test was performed to collect data on pore structure char­
SiO2 (wt%) 27.8 acteristics. The specimens were manually cut with a diamond cutting
SiO2: Na2O weight ratio 3.16
SiO2: Na2O mole ratio (Modulus) 3.30
machine. The obtained patches were immersed in absolute ethyl alcohol
for 24 h and then dried at 60 ◦ C for 72 h in a vacuum oven.

Table 4 3. Results and discussions

Mix proportion of geopolymer.
3.1. Characterization of MSWI-FA and FNS
Mix. ID MSWI- GGBS SF Water w/b Na2O FNS
FA(g) (g) (g) (g) (%) (g)
3.1.1. Morphology of MSWI-FA and FNS
MF100 100 0 0 65 0.65 10 200
MF90G10 90 10 0 65 0.65 10 200
The morphologies of MSWI-FA and FNS were observed and pre­
MF90S10 90 0 10 65 0.65 10 200 sented in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. The MSWI-FA was irregular and
MF80G10S10 80 10 10 65 0.65 10 200 spheroidal particles, some of which constitute a grey cluster. The fine
MF80G20 80 20 0 65 0.65 10 200 particle has a rough and loose surface which gives MSWI-FA a high
MF80S20 80 0 20 65 0.65 10 200
specific surface area. The FNS was observed with a rough and porous
MF60G20S20 60 20 20 65 0.65 10 200
surface which is consistent with the earlier report (Sun et al., 2019). This
characteristic of FNS may facilitate the good interfacial bonding be­
of contact interface between the specimen and the tested electrodes tween FNS and the binder matrix.
(Q2(Rct2W2)). The total impedance Z can be specifically described as
follow: 3.1.2. Physical properties of MSWI-FA and FNS
As shown in Table 2, the specific surface area of GGBS are 400–500
Rct1 + W1 Rct2 + W2
Z = Rs + + (1) m2 kg− 1, which is higher than Portland cement’s 300–350 m2 kg− 1.
1 + jωRct1 Q1 + jωQ1 W1 1 + jωRct2 Q1 + jωQ2 W2
Moreover, the specific surface area of MSWI-FA is ten times higher than
Where Rs is the resistance of electrolyte solution, Rct1 is the charge the GGBS, SF, and Portland cement, which may demand more mixed
transfer resistance on the solid-liquid phases, Rct2 is the charge transfer water and mix time in the practical preparation. The apparent density,
resistance between the electrodes and the electrolyte, Q2 is the double- bulk density, and compact density of FNS are higher than the standard
layer capacitance between the electrodes and the electrolyte, W1 is the sand.
Warburg resistance of the charge diffusion, W2 is the Warburg resistance
of the charge-diffusion process, and ω is the angular frequency.
3.2. Characterization of geopolymer
2.3.4. Scanning electron microscope (SEM)/elemental (EDS)
The microstructural characteristic of specimens was observed with Several tests were used to detailly characterize the performance of
an FEI Quanta 200 scanning electron microscope (20 kV working geopolymer. The leaching test and compressive strength test are to
voltage and 1280 × 960 pixels image resolution). EDS was also applied characterize the S/S properties and mechanical properties of MSWI-FA
to determine the elemental composition of the hydration productions. based geopolymer. To better illustrate the heavy metals physical
encapsulation mechanism of geopolymer, the EIS was carried out to get
2.3.5. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis electrochemical properties of geopolymers, which reflected the inner
XRD test was used to determine the crystalline composition of physical structure of geopolymer. MIP test was performed to obtain pore
specimens. The specimens were crushed into small slices and 15 g characteristic of geopolymer. Moreover, SEM, EDS, and XRD tests were
specimens were gound with 15 ml isopropanol for at least 2min. Then carried out to obtain the microstructural characteristic and hydration
the powder was stored in a vacuum drying oven at 60 ◦ C for one day and products of geopolymer, which illustrate the heavy metals chemical
binding mechanism of geopolymer.

4
W.-J. Long et al.
Fig. 3. SEM image of morphologhs: (a) MSWI-FA and (b) FNS.
3.2.1. Compressive strength analysis
Fig. 4 shows the compressive strength of geopolymers at 7 and 28
days. The reference mixture made with 100 wt% MSWI-FA had a
compressive strength of 3.1 and 5.9 MPa at 7 and 28 days, respectively.
The low compressive strength could attribute to two reasons: 1) The
high w/b ratio of geopolymer. The high specific surface of MSWI-FA
shown in section 2.1 requested more amount of water to ensure work­
ability, which may lead to the reduction of compressive strength. 2) The
amount of hydration product in geopolymer. MSWI-FA container less
amount of SiO2 and Al2O3 compared to slag. It may lead to less C–S–H
hydration product and reduction of compressive strengths.
The compressive strength was significantly increased with the
increasing replacement of MSWI-FA at both 7 and 28 days of age. For
example, replacing MSWI-FA with the 20 wt% GGBS and SF increased
28 d compressive strength by 155% and 201%, respectively. This can be
attributed to the formation of C–A–S–H and the development of pore
structure. Adding GGBS supplement the essential Si and Al source. These
aluminosilicate oxide dissolved as Al(OH)4- and SiO2(OH)2− 2 or SiO
(OH)3- and react with the Ca2+ in MSWI-FA to form C-A-S-H hydration
products, which contributes to the compressive strength (Chen et al.,
2019; Cyr et al., 2012; Luna Galiano et al., 2011). Furthermore, SF has
been reported to enhance compressive strength by the pore filling effect
due to the fine particle size, which can promote the development of
compressive strength (Li et al., 2014).
With the 20% replacement of MSWI-FA, the compressive strengths at
7 and 28 days of MF80G10S10 mixture were better than MF80G20 and
Fig. 4. Compressive strength of geopolymer.
5
Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281
MF80S20. This indicates that the synergistical use of GGBS and SF were
better than their single addition. This effect may attribute to the syn­
ergistic effect by GGBS and SF.
3.2.2. Leachates analysis
Two leaching methods including SNA and AAM were performed to
simulate the leachate of geopolymer in acid rain pollution and landfill
leachate, respectively. The heavy metals leaching of geopolymer is
shown in Table 5 and the upper limit of three Chinese standards is also
presented to evaluate the leaching of heavy metal ions. As shown in
Table 5, the concentration of all the heavy metals species was far below
the upper limit of Standard GB18598-2019(2020) and GB5085.3–2007
(2020), indicating the geopolymer effectively stabilize the heavy metals
leaching. Physically, the geopolymer is formed by the three-dimensional
aluminum silicate network structure, which consists of AlO4 and SiO4
tetrahedral structure units. In the cavity of these units, the contaminants
could be seal stably. Furthermore, the network skeleton of geopolymer
was reported to be of perfect stability under strong acid-base conditions.
(J.G.S. van Jaarsveld, 1998; Luna Galiano et al., 2011). Other than this
physical encapsulation, various double-layered hydroxides of calcium
alumino/ferric hydrates such as ettringite (AFm) were reported to
chemically interact with metals and replaced these heavy metals with
interlayer hydroxyl.
Moreover, the leachate pH value of geopolymer is showed in Fig. 5.
Leachate pH value is the key factor for immobilizing heavy metal ions in
cementitious materials. The relation between the leachate pH value and
leaching concentration of heavy metal ions is shown in Fig. 5. It should
be noticed that the pH value of the buffer solution of method AAM was
2.88 ± 0.05. After immersion and tumble, the pH values of the leachate
for all the specimens ranged from 4.5 to 4.9 which can be attributed to
the buffering capacity of alkali environment in geopolymer (Luo et al.,
2019; Zhang et al., 2016).
Overall, the pH value of the leachate was increased with the increase
in the replacement of MSWI-FA. The relations between leaching con­
centration and pH values are the pH-dependent leaching. According to
previous work (Luo et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2016), the elements such as
Zn, Pb, and Cr followed a cationic leaching pattern where the leached
concentrations decreased with an increased pH environment. The
leaching of this cationic pattern is controlled by the dis­
solution/precipitation mechanism of corresponding hydroxides, car­
bonate, or sulfate solids which is soluble in acid-stage and indissolvable
in alkalinity (Guo et al., 2017; Jiao et al., 2016; Luo et al., 2019).
Moreover, as shown in Fig. 5(a)–(c), the Zn, Pb, and Cr leaching
concentration were reduced with the increased pH value. However, the
leaching concentrations in MF80G20 and MF80S20 were higher than
those of MF80G10S10, which was due to the more compacted matrix in
MF80G10S10. The combined use of GGBS and SF in geopolymer can
facilitate the formation of C-A-S-H, which is beneficial to the physical
encapsulation of heavy metals. This corresponding to compressive
W.-J. Long et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

Table 5
Leachability of geopolymer and the upper limitation in standard (mg/L).
Metal Type Concentration with Method SNA Upper Limitation Concentration with Method AAM Upper Limitation
a b
Standard 1 Standard 2 Standard 3c

Cu 0.0007 ± 0.0008 100 120 2.2849 ± 1.2129 40

Zn 0.0717 ± 0.0001 100 120 21.5796 ± 6.2457 100
Pb 0.0221 ± 0.0496 5 1.2 2.7748 ± 0.9195 0.25
Cr 0.0180 ± 0.0113 5 15 0.7684 ± 0.2086 4.5
Ba 0.1254 ± 0.0732 100 85 0.4546 ± 0.0650 25
As 0.0040 ± 0.0020 5 1.2 0.1345 ± 0.0633 0.3
a
Standard 1 is GB18598-2019 (2020): Standard for pollution control on the hazardous waste landfill.
b
Standard 2 is GB5085.3–2007 (2020): Identification standard of hazardous waste-identification of leaching toxicity.
c
Standard 3 is GB16889− 2008: Standard for pollution control on the landfill site of municipal solid waste.

Fig. 5. Leaching concentration of heavy metal ions according to pH value: (a) Zn; (b) Pb; (c) Cr; (d) Mn.

strength results. Fig. 5(d) shows that the leachate of Mn is independent
with the pH value.
3.2.3. EIS analysis
The EIS responses in the Nyquist format of geopolymer and the
electrochemical parameter Rct2 are shown in Fig. 6 and Table 6,
respectively. In Fig. 6, the diameters of the semicircles of the Nyquist
curves increase with the replacement of MSWI-FA by GGBS and SF. The
relationship between electrochemical response at high or low fre­
quencies in cementitious materials and physical properties have been
discussed in previous studies (Lizarazo-Marriaga et al., 2014; Song,
2000). The electrochemical responses at high, intermediate, and low
frequencies are respectively related to the solid phase (including hy­
drated products and fine aggregate), pore network, and
electrode-electrolyte interface. Hence, the increased diameter of the
semicircle of the Nyquist curve corresponds to the dense pore structure
and compact matrix. This indicates that the pore structure and matrix of
specimens are effectively densified by the adding of GGBS and SF, which
benefit the physical encapsulation of heavy metals.
It should be noted that the electrochemical impedance of the overall
specimen cannot accurately estimate the internal microstructure of
geopolymer. Hence, the values of the electrochemical parameter Rct1 of
geopolymer were obtained by fitting with model Rs (Q1(Rct1W1))
(Q2(Rct2W2)). This model uses two individual elements (Rs (Q1
(Rct1W1))) to simulate the charge interactions in both the pore solution
and solid/liquid double phase, which precisely reflect electric response
inside the geopolymer. Rct1 represents the resistance of the charge
transfer between the solid and liquid phases of geopolymer, which is
affected by several physical factors including the type and concentration
of ions in pore solution, porous structure, and the compactness of the
matrix (Ball et al., 2011; Dong et al., 2014, 2016). In Table 6, the value
of Rct1 is increased with the increasing replacement of MSWI-FA by
GGBS and SF. This can be attributed to two reasons: (i) adding GGBS and
SF firstly consume a large amount of OH− due to the pozzolanic effect
(Korde et al., 2020) and OH− is reported to be the most significant
contributor to the pore solution conductivity (Snyder et al., 2003). (ii) as

6
W.-J. Long et al.
Fig. 6. EIS responses in Nyquist curve.
Table 6
Electrochemical parameter Rct2 of geopolymer.
Rct2 (kΩ)
MF100 341
MF80G20 3476
MF80S20 8175
MF60G20S20 14195
the above discussion, the pore structure and matrix are densified by
adding GGBS and SF. It leads to the blocking of the connected pore and
less contact area of the solid/liquid phase, which increased the Rct1
resistance.
3.2.4. SEM analysis
The microstructural characteristic of geopolymer at 28 days is shown
in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows the interfacial transition zone (ITZ)
between FNS and matrix in MF100 and MF60G20S20, respectively. It
can be seen that the ITZ in the former was loose, porous, and cracked,
while good interfacial bonding was observed in the latter. Adding GGBS
and SF can strengthen the bonding between the FNS and matrix, and the
reason may be that ITZ was densified by the facilitation of C–A–S–H gel
and pores filling.
Fig. 7(c) shows the typical crystal phase of angular crystal blocks
with a length of 5–20 μm in MF100. The corresponding EDS results
showed that the elemental composition mainly comprises Na and Cl,
indicating the angular crystal blocks were NaCl crystal. This crystal
originates from the Cl element of MSWI-FA and alkaline-activator
(mainly comprise NaOH and Na2SiO3). Furthermore, few amorphous
clusters and particles were observed due to the non-activated MSWI-FA.
Overlapping hexagonal flake crystals were observed at the specimen
of MF80G20 in Fig. 7(d). Hexagonal flake crystals in cementitious ma­
terials have been reported in a previous study (Long et al., 2018a),
which likely to be calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) or Friedel’s salts
(Ca4Al2O6Cl2∙10H2O). The corresponding EDS results showed that the
main elemental composition of this crystal includes Ca, Al, Cl, and Ba,
which was supposed to be the Friedel’s salts. Similar to AFm
(3CaO⋅Al2O3⋅CaSO4⋅12H2O), Friedel’s salts are a double-layered hy­
droxide with a positive layer and negative ions in the interlayer (Shi
et al., 2017). The AFm has been reported to react with heavy metals such
as Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn, which was beneficial to the chemical binding of
heavy metal ions (Albino et al., 1996; Chen et al., 2020; Li et al., 2019).
EDS results showed that heavy metal ions Ba is observed at EDS spectra
of Friedel’s salts crystal in geopolymer, which indicating Friedel’s salts
7
Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281
may benefit the chemical binding of heavy metals. .
Fig. 7(e) shows the amorphous gel for the MF60G20S20 mixture. The
corresponding EDS results showed that it mainly comprised O, Ca, Si, Al,
and Na, indicating that the C–A–S–H was formed by Al substitutes for Si
in the C–S–H and was a normal product in the GGBS-based geopolymer
(Myers et al., 2017). Similarly, the large amount of Na tends to incor­
porate into Si–O structure to form Si–O–Na groups under the low Ca
content environment (Garcia-Lodeiro et al., 2010; Zhu et al., 2020). The
C–A–S–H gel is reported to constitute a denser structure than C–S–H,
which benefits the physical encapsulation of heavy metal ions.
3.2.5. XRD analysis
Fig. 8 shows the XRD patterns of geopolymer hydrated at 28 days of
age. The main hydration products including halite (NaCl), Portlandite
(Ca(OH)2), C–A–S–H, Friedel’s salts (Ca4Al2O6Cl2∙10H2O), and Quartz
(SiO2) were detected. From the curve in Fig. 8, several dispersion peaks
between 28◦ to 31◦ can be considered as silicate gel with poor crystalline
states which were reported previously (Long et al., 2018c; Wu et al.,
2011; Yang et al., 2019). The peaks belonging with C–A–S–H were
slightly increased with the replacement of MSWI-FA by GGBS and SF.
This attribute to the pozzolanic reaction of GGBS and SF under strongly
alkali conditions. When mixing the alkali activator and raw materials,
the GGBS and SF are dissolved to release AlO2− and SiO2− because the
active hydroxyl ion breaks the chain of Si–O–Si and Al–O–Si in solid
GGBS and of Si–O–Si in solid SF (Duraman and Richardson, 2020). Then
C–A–S–H tends to form by assembling free SiO2− , AlO2− ions and Ca2+
ions released by MSWI-FA. Consequently, the formation of C–A–S–H can
densify the microstructure and develop the pore structure, which ben­
efits the compact matrix to hinder heavy metals leaching.
The crystal phase of Friedel’s (Ca4Al2O6Cl2∙10H2O) corresponds to
the peaks at theta 11 ◦ C in MF80G20 curve, which is consistent with the
SEM results. Additionally, the peaks associated with NaCl in MF100
were significantly higher than those in other groups, due to the large
amount of Cl and Na2O in MSWI-FA. When the proportion of MSWI-FA
decreased in the geopolymer, the intensity of this peak consequently
decreased.
3.2.6. MIP analysis
The MIP test was carried out to further investigate the relation be­
tween pore characteristics and leachate of geopolymer. The cumulative
intrusion curve and particle pore distribution of geopolymer are shown
in Fig. 9(a) and (b). In Fig. 9, replacing MSWI-FA with GGBS and SF
reduced the total intruded volume. Specifically, adding 20 wt% of GGBS
and SF had a total porosity of specimens in MF80G20 and MF80S20 with
a value of 26.4% and 25.8%, respectively. This reduced the total
porosity by 19.8% and 21.6% compared to that of MF100, respectively,
indicating that adding GGBS and SF densified the pore structure and
compacted the matrix of geopolymer. Furthermore, replacing MSWI-FA
with GGBS and SF can alter the pore distribution of geopolymer. As
shown in Fig. 9(b), the capillary pore volume ranged from 30 to 2000 nm
pore diameter was reduced by replacing MSWI-FA with GGBS and SF,
while capillary pore volume ranged from 6 to 30 nm pore diameter was
increased. Due to the pozzolanic activity, GGBS and SF can facilitate the
formation of C-A-S-H which constitutes the dense matrix and pore
structure. Furthermore, the small particles of SF were reported to
contribute to total porosity decrease and pore structure development
due to the pore filling effect (Alanazi et al., 2019). As the hinder for
leaching, the compact matrix enhanced the physical encapsulation of
heavy ions. Several studies also reported that MSWI-FA based geo­
polymer with less porosity shows better S/S performance of heavy
metals (Chen et al., 2013; Lin et al., 2004).
3.2.7. Performance evaluation of geopolymer
Table 7 summarize the several performance improvement of geo­
polymer in this study. It can be clearly seen that by replacing MSWI-FA
with GGBS and SF, the compressive strength of geopolymer is improved
W.-J. Long et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

Fig. 7. SEM image and EDS results of geopolymer: (a) ITZ of MF100; (b) ITZ of MF60G20S20; (c) halite crystal and corresponding EDS results in MF100; (d)
hydrocalumite and corresponding EDS results in MF80G20; (e) amorphous gel and corresponding EDS results in MF60G20S20.

and the porosity of geopolymer decrease. Meanwhile, the variation
trend of heavy metals leachate is correspondingly related to that of
compressive strength. This indicates that compressive strengths and
porosity characterize the physical encapsulation of heavy metals, which
reflect on leaching performance. The microstructure performance shows
no clear difference which indicates the chemical binding effect of heavy
metals does not play the major roles in anti-leaching. Hence, the per­
formance evaluation shows the feasibility of geopolymer. By recycled
use the MSWI-FA and FNS, it can not only decease the cost on dispose of
the heavy metals but also benefits from developing eco-friendly substi­
tute construction materials.
4. Conclusions
This study investigates the feasible utilization of MSWI-FA as an
immobilization host to dispose of FNS through geopolymer technology.
The GGBS and SF were used to partly replace MSWI-FA to strengthen the
performance of geopolymer. The mechanical performance, leaching

8
W.-J. Long et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 307 (2021) 127281

of 155% and 201%. Furthermore, synergistically used of GGBS and

SF are better than single addition.
● All the leaching concentrations of heavy metals in geopolymer are
according to the standards of hazardous waste landfills. The geo­
polymer effectively immobilized the heavy metal ions. The reason is
that heavy metal ions were physically trapped by the geopolymer
network of geopolymer and chemically binding by surface absorp­
tion and ions replacement of calcium aluminum hydrates. The Zn,
Pb, and Cr leaching concentration decrease at the increased pH
value, which is controlled by the dissolution/precipitation
mechanism.
● The EIS response shows that geopolymer has a compact structure and
dense pore structure, which attribute to physical stabilization/so­
lidification. The total impedance of geopolymer increase with the
replacement of MSWI-FA by GGBS and SF, which indicates that the
pore structure and matrix of specimens are effectively densified. The
increasing value of Rct1, obtained by fit with model Rs (Q1
(Rct1W1)) (Q2(Rct2W2)), also confirms that the pore structure of
geopolymer is developed.
● Based on the SEM/EDS results, a considerable amount of C-A-S-H gel
and Friedel’s salts are observed and confirmed. The C–A–S–H gel
Fig. 8. XRD spectra of geopolymer.
constitutes the denser structure and compact matrix, which mainly
contribute to the physical encapsulation of heavy metal ions. The
Friedel’s salts were overlapped with heavy metals Ba on the surface,
performance, microstructure analysis, and electrically performance of
which confirms that Friedel’s salts contribute to the chemical bind­
geopolymer were tested. The following conclusions can be drawn:
ing of heavy metals. Furthermore, NaCl crystals were observed due
to a large amount of Cl in MSWI-FA and Na in alkali activator.
● The mechanical performance of geopolymer was enhanced by
● The XRD results show that adding GGBS and SF facilitate the for­
replacing MSWI-FA with GGBS and SF. Replacing MSWI-FA with the
mation of C-A-S-H, which improves the compactness of the matrix
20 wt% GGBS and SF increased 28 d compressive with the value of
and physical encapsulation of heavy metal ions. It is also consistent
15.0 and 17.7 MPa, respectively, corresponding to an increased rate

Fig. 9. Cumulative intrusion curve and particle pore distribution of geopolymer: (a) Cumulative intrusion curve; (b) Particle pore distribution.

Table 7
Summarization of performance of geopolymer.
Mix. ID MF100 MF90G10 MF90S10 MF80 MF80G20 MF80S20 MF60
G10S10 G20S20

Compressive strengths[1] * ** ** *** *** *** ****

< 10 MPa 11–15 MPa 16–20 MPa > 20 MPa
[2]
Leachates *** *** *** * ** * *
>3.0 mg/L 2.0–3.0 mg/L < 2.0 mg/L
Microstructure performance[3] * ** ** ** ** ** ***
Porosity[4] *** *** *** ** ** ** *
> 30% 20–30% < 20%

*: represent the relatively degree of performance.

1
Based on the 28 days compressive strength.
2
Based on the leaching concentration of heavy metals Pb.
3
Based on the results of XRD and SEM test.
4
Based on the total porosity.

9
W.-J. Long et al.
with the pore characteristic obtained by MIP, which shows that with
the addition of GGBS and SF, the total porosity is significantly
decreased and the pore structure is developed.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Wu-Jian Long: Writing – original draft, designed and conducted the
core experiments, wrote the draft of the manuscript, and supervised the
research. Jun-kai Peng: Formal analysis, analysis core results and he
has also conducted the experiments. Yu-cun Gu: Formal analysis, per­
formed the pore structure analysis. Jin-lin Li: conducted the experi­
ments. Biqin Dong: Writing – original draft, revised the the draft of the
manuscript. Feng Xing: Writing – original draft, revised the the draft of
the manuscript. Yuan Fang: Writing – original draft, revised the the
draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the analysis for results
and conclusions and revised the paper.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided
by the Science and Technology Project of Shenzhen, China (No.
JCYJ20190808151011502 and No. JCYJ20180305124844894), the
National Natural Science Foundations of China, NSFC-Shandong Joint
Fund (No. U2006223), and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of
Durability for Marine Civil Engineering (SZU) (No. 2020B1212060074).
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