Immobilization of Chromium from Liquid Waste of Electroplating Home-Industries by Fly Ash Geopolymerization

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering 2018-05, Vol.367 (1), p.12049
• Main Authors: Fansuri, H., Erviana, E., Rosyidah, M., Iqbal, R. M., Utomo, W. P., Nurlina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; chrome waste; Chromium; Compressive strength; Electroplating; Fly ash; geopolymer; Geopolymers; Heavy metals; Immobilization; Leaching; Liquid wastes; Plating; Silicon dioxide; Toxicity testing; Wastewater; Water pollution
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/367/1/012049

Immobilization is one of methods that can be used to overcome the problem of water pollution by heavy metals, such as chromium, which is possibly produced in an electroplating home-industry. One method that can be used to immobilize heavy metals is by using the waste water as a reactant in a geopolymerization process. The resulting geopolymer will contain such heavy metals and keep them from being dispersed into the environment. In this research, the immobilization was carried out by geopolymerization of fly ash from PT. IPMOMI (International Power Mitsui Operation and Maintenance) in Probolinggo, Indonesia, which pass through 60 (FA 60), 100 (FA 100), and 200 (FA 200) mesh sieve and using wastewater from electroplating home-industries in Ngingas Village, Sidoarjo-Indonesia, or a solution of Cr(NO3)3.9H2O as one of its reactants. The composition of the geopolymerization follows the results of previous research, i.e using the ratio of Solid to Liquid (S/L) = 3.59, Na2O/SiO2 = 0.67, H2O/Na2O = 3.33 and SiO2/Al2O3 = 6.46. Experimental results show that the compressive strength of geopolymers without heavy metals addition increases when the particle size decreases. Geopolymer made of FA 100 has the highest compressive strength i.e 35.05 MPa. The addition of a chromium-containing wastewater in FA 100 geopolymerization produce a geopolymer with a lower compressive strength i.e 26.42 MPa while the addition of Cr(NO3)3·9H2O solution produce geopolymer with compressive strength of 24.47 MPa. The SEM-EDX photo shows that chrome was evenly dispersed in the geopolymer. Leaching test with TCLP method (Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure) on the geopolymer product showed that no chrome content in the leachate was found. This suggests that chromium is immobilized by geopolymers very well.