Studies on solidification of wastes from metal coating

There are over 1000 electroplating workshops functioning in Poland; they are agglomerated in automotive industry, agricultural and construction machines industry, precision instruments industry, electronics, electrotechnics, etc.. . The chemical composition of wastes from galvanizing plants strictly depends on the technological processes as well as the methods of neutralization of industrial wastewaters. The wastes mentioned can be neutralized, among other possibilities, using cement, fly ashes or lime. The material that gains the widest applicability for treating a wide spectrum of hazardous wastes is Portland cement. Using cement enables an improvement of the physical (solidifying) and chemical characteristics of various kinds of wastes, that ensures a decrease in the mobility of contaminants (stabilization). The process using Portland cement (CEM I 32,5 R) was used towards galvanic sludges. The results presented in this article allow for the assesment of the applicability of mixture of cement with mortar sand, as well as the mixture of cement and flotation tailings for the stabilizing and solidifying galvanic sludge, containing mainly Cr, Cu, Zn and Ni. The presented study was also concentrated on the limitation in the transport of leached contaminants to the environment, the reduction of the solubility of hazardous contaminants, as well as a change in the physical structure of the waste - in other words, derivation of the product that could be mechanically durable during transport and storage.