PROCESS FOR THE CONFINEMENT OF SOLID MATERIALS

Abstract: A process for the confinement of generally harmful solid materials is disclosed and claimed. The solid materials are immobilized and confined within a solid matrix for an unlimited storage free from pollution risks. The solid materials are mixed with at least one low condensed, liquid phenolic resin and a cross-linking agent which is selected from partly or wholly sulfonated linear and/or cyclic phenolic oligomers, and the cross-linking which forms said solid matrix under hardening is allowed to occur. When a mould is used for the hardening reaction, solid blocks are formed which are resistant to water, heat, and environmental acids and bases. These blocks need not be stored in a safe environment but can further be used for applications such as construction elements.

Description: Process for the confinement of solid materials BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention belongs to the technical field of con- fmement or inert storage of polluting and toxic materials. The invention particularly refers to a process for the ul ¬ timate confinement of solid materials which may be m pow¬ der form or not, such as ultimate wastes, m order to avoid any danger for the environment. Further, the invention is related to shaped bodies as obtained by the process of the invention. Numerous are the wastes and residues of our civilisa¬ tion which can no longer simply be disposed of m pouring them on waste dumping grounds since their lixiviation by rain water and snow will contaminate the soil and the groundwater. Heavy metals such as zmc, copper, mercury, cadmium, nickel, lead and so on which can be found in nu ¬ merous waste solids, especially in residual ashes of waste and garbage incineration plants, constitute a major r s . These metals, generally m the form of oxides, are enricheα in the ashes and are particularly sensitive to lixiviation. It is therefore nowadays necessary to stabilize these wastes by confinement with materials that must remain sta ¬ ble. 2. Description of the Prior Art Until now, a method which is well established and cur ¬ rently used at a great scale is the stabilization of solid wastes, preferably ultimate wastes which cannot further be reduced in volume and in weight, by concrete confinement. The wastes are in principle blended with a concrete con¬ taining hydraulic binder, blocks are manufactured from the mixture to which water was added, the blocks are left for hardening, and the hardened blocks are finally stored at a safe place on a dumping ground under supervision. However, it is of course not possible to store all these blocks thus manufactured in caverns where they are protected against meteorological precipitations, especially rain water. Concrete blocks are not inert against leaching or lixiviation brought about by these precipitations; the hardened concrete being a basic medium, it is attacked bv water that contains acid substances such as atmospheric carbon dioxide and sometimes sulfurous, sulfuric, nitrous and nitric acids. It has already been necessary to establish standards defining maximum metal concentrations m the lixiviated liquors which occur in an open air dumping ground. Fur- thermore, the maximum concentration of certain components, before all heavy metals, of the wastes to be confineα in concrete blocks had to be limited. It follows that part of the wastes, namely those which contain more heavy metals than allowed, can no longer be confined normally but must be diluted in a certain manner before being contained and stabilized in the concrete. Therefore, other possibilities for the confininσ treatment of wastes have been searched, and the stabiliza ¬ tion of the residues by heat setting materials has been considered, see Environnement et Technique 127, 45 (June 1993) . Depending on the physical state of solid, liquid cr gas of the ultimate wastes to be stabilized, the confine ¬ ment methods comprise coating, encapsulating and captivat- ing techniques. The final objective of such methods is to contain and to isolate all these materials in a form that is permanently stable and that does not release toxic or dangerous substances. For example, German Patent Application No. DE-A1- 3,603,080 discloses a method for the manufacture of waste material blocks wherein shaped, artificial stone like bod ¬ ies are first made from binders such as concrete, water and aggregates, and the wastes are then transferred into hollow boxes made from the shaped bodies. As a variant, the wastes are blended into the mixture of concrete, aggregate and water. Of course, this method shows the drawbacks of all concrete confinements even if the hollow boxes are lined with rubber or plastics sheets; this measure means an additional, expensive step, and there is no security of a permanent tightness of this liner. The use of phenolics for the confinement of wastes has not yet become known so far. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The first and major object of the present invention is to provide a new and useful process for the confinement of solid materials which may be in powder or compact form, es¬ pecially of ultimate wastes such as ashes coming from waste or garbage incineration installations. A second and also important object of the present in ¬ vention is a process of the depicted kind which is capable of replacing, totally or in part, the confinement methods which use concrete preparations. Finally, another important object of the invention is to provide a confinement process which does not imply the - - drawbacks of the presently known confinement methods whicn are carried out in using appreciable amounts of water whicr must later on be removed by drying and leaves behind pores and other interstices m the confinement. These objects and still others are attained b Υ the process of this invention which is carried out in first preparing a mixture containing at least (1) a liquid pheno¬ lic resm, (2) a crosslinking agent for said resm, and (3ι the solid materials to be stored the confinement. This mixture is then crosslinked or allowed to crosslink, and a three-dimensional matrix of a phenoplast is obtained perma¬ nently captivating the said solid materials to be con¬ tained. As a liquid phenolic resin cited above, the use of a resol prepared from phenol and formaldehyde is preferred that is only slightly condensed and thus capable of being spontaneously crosslinked when the crosslinking agent is added. The invention contemplates preferably as a crosslinking agent (2) mentioned above, linear phenoxic oligomers that are wholly or partially sulfonated, cyclic phenolic oligomers that are wholly or partially sulfonated, and mixtures of these oligomers. Sulfonated cyclic pheno¬ lic oligomers to be preferably used are the so-calieα calixarenes which are wholly or partly sulfonated. The crosslinking may be carried out after having transferred the mixture defined above into a mould. This avoids any flowing away of the mixture and the necessity to use relatively viscous resms and crosslinking agents. Furthermore, crosslinking may be accelerated by more or less gently heating, and this heating is of course easier when the composition has been cast mto a mould. However, the present process is preferably carried out at normal temperature and at atmospheric pressure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following description gives general information or the nature and the realization of the present process. This chapter will be followed by concrete Examples which further explain the invention but which are not to be con¬ sidered as to limit the mvention in any way. In carrying out the invention, one starts from a phe¬ nolic resm of the resol type which is only a low condensed one and in which the solids to be confined m granulate or powder form are introduced. The necessary conditions for obtaining such a low condensed, liquid resm are known tc those skilled in the art; it is generally sufficient to se ¬ lect an appropriate ratio between the startmg materials, namely phenol and formaldehyde, and not to exceed during the condensation reaction in a basic medium a given tem¬ perature, for example from 40 to 60°C. When such a lov. condensed phenolic resm is reacted with a liquid acidic crosslinking agent, a three-dimensional network is formeα by polycondensation. The invention provides the addition of the solid materials to be confined either to the lov. condensed startmg phenolic resm or to the crosslin mc agent, or to both. The particular possibility to be se¬ lected will depend on the nature of the solid materials tc be confined. The fact that the startmg resm and the crosslinking agent are liquid compositions will ascertain, due to their relatively low viscosity, a good impregnation of the soiia materials to be confined, be they m powder form or not. According to the invention, the liquid crosslinking agent which has an acidic character, due to its sulfonic acid moieties, is preferably selected from partially cr wholly sulfonated phenolic oligomers. These substances are generally of the same nature as the resols, their substitu¬ ents -SO3H excepted, and they are chemically combined with the resols in formmg bridges between the resol molecules. They are thus not merely physically imprisoned in the phe- noplast under formation as are the acid catalysts used un¬ til now for the polycondensation of the resols but thev are, to the contrary, fixedly incorporated into said net¬ work as a chemical constituent thereof. The invention uses the new crosslinking agent m the form of partially or wholly sulfonated linear phenolic oli¬ gomers, of partially or wholly sulfonated cyclic phenolic oligomers, or of their mixtures, and each particular mix¬ ture may further contam sulfonated phenol. The sulfonated cyclic phenolic oligomers are in part already known; they have however never been proposed as ad¬ ditives for resols in the polycondensation thereof. Sul¬ fonated cyclic phenolic oligomers are for example describeα m the paper "Synthesis and acid-base properties of calιx[4], calιx[6] and calix [8] arenes p-sulfonic acids" by J.P. Scharff, M. Mahjoubi and R. Perr , -Veiv J. Chem . , 1991, 15, 883-887; however, their use according to the pre¬ sent invention, namely as a crosslinking agent, has not been disclosed nor suggested. The addition of the above described crosslinking agent system to the resols ascertains first the crosslinking ana the hardening of the whole mass. It has been found that, durmg the described step, the crosslinking agents used ac¬ cordmg to the present invention display a three-fold func¬ tion: on one hand, they act as initiators m the polycon- densation reaction; on the other hand, they allow the for¬ mation of a three-dimensional matrix in which the solid ma¬ terials to be confined are immobilized in an absolutely stable fashion; and finally, they have the property to fix, by their acidic groups, basic solid materials to be con¬ fined. Furthermore, some of these crosslinking agents are capable of forming inclusion complexes ("chlathrates" witr. certain ions, due to their structure that contains polar acrocyclic cavities. For example, depending on their size, their conforma¬ tion and their functionality, the calixarenes are capable of retaining certain ions: metallic cations sucn as Lι + , Na + , K + , Rb + , Ag+, Cs + , Ca 2+ , Be 2+ , Mg 2+ , Nι 2+ , Zn 2+ , Cu 2+ , Cd 2+ , Pb 2+ ; the lanthanides (La, Eu, Pr, Tm, Lu) , ana the act ides (U0 2 2+ , Th 4+ ) ; then organic cations (ammonium) , and some anions such as Cl ~ , Br " , I " , HS0 ~ , H 2 P0 4 ~ . Most of these ions are present in ionic form or are combined ir the solid materials to be confined. If calixarenes are present within the matrix of the heat curing resol matrix, which is the preferred condition, they bring about a capa ¬ bility of a selective molecular inclusion of most of the ions m the solid mixtures to be confined. The calixarenes form endo and exo complexes, the lat- ter due to substituents which can be introduced in their molecule before they are added to the resol as the crosslinking agent. The one skilled m the art has the necessary knowledge for selecting these substituents in function of the molecules to be complexed by endo com- plexes. The formation of the endo complexes and the inclu¬ sions mentioned above are possible thanks to the hollow cone shape of the cyclic basic structure of the calixare¬ nes. For example, the cone formed by calix [5] arenes nas a big opening of 0.53 nm m diameter and a little opening cr 0.24 nm in diameter; as a reference, the ionic diameter cf Lι + is 0.152 nm, of Na + is 0.204 nm, and of Cs + , 0.34 nm. In blocking the ions within the cavities of the calixare ¬ nes, the present process eliminates the mobility possibili ¬ ties of the ions withm the heat set matrix and makes thus impossible any contamination of lixiviates. In fact, the molecules of the solid materials to be confined are re¬ tained, on one hand, by imprisonment withm the phenoplast matrix and, on the other hand, they are entrapped and coir- plexed in the particular "cage" structure of each calix- arene molecule which is polycondensed m the matrix. The preferentially used crosslinking agent in the pre¬ sent process will be selected depending on the particular solid materials to be confined, namely from partly or wholly sulfonated cyclic phenolic oligomers ("calixarenes" to which at least one partly or wholly sulfonated linear species may be added, and their mixtures. These mixtures may also contam sulfonated monomeric phenol. However, the crosslinking agent used in the present process may alsc comprise partly or wholly sulfonated linear phenolic oli¬ gomers if the solid materials to be confined have a compo¬ sition which is not much sensitive to lixiviation, or not at all. In the practice of the present invention, the solid materials to be confined may be added, depending on the particular case, to the low condensed starting pnenci-c resm, and the crosslinking agent is added to this mixture. In an alternative manner, the solid materials to be con¬ fined are mixed with the crosslinking agent, and the saiα phenolic resm is then introduced. It is also possible tc blend a portion of the solid materials to be confined witr the phenolic resm and the remainder of these materials with the crosslinking agent, and then to combine these two mixtures. Finally, it is possible to blend simultaneously all components listed above, namely the solids to be con¬ fined, the resm and the crosslinking agent, preferably m a mould since the blend hardens very rapidly. The mixing techniques described above may be conducteα batchwise or continuously. The one skilled in the art wιl-_ be capable of designing adequate devices and installations which are therefore not described herein. Regarding the batchwise process variant, the final mixture comprising all components is generally made or in ¬ troduced a mold having the shape of the body or bloo desired. The crosslinking reaction does generally not re ¬ quire any heating of the mixture or the addition of an starter, initiator or promoter for being started, and after some mmutes, a solid block is obtained which is not sensi¬ ble to lixiviation, resists to water even if it contains acids such as carbonic acid, sulfurous acid, sulfuric aciα, nitrogen containing acids, and to heat, typically up tc about 200 °C or even higher. The solid matrix which is constituted by the crosslinked phenolic resm presents an improved property cf imprisoning the solid materials to be confined. This fact resides partly in the entrapping properties of the crosslinked three-dimensional network and m molecular re ¬ ceptors dispersed withm the matrix. The contamination of any lixiviation liquors emerging from the conf emert blocks obtained in the process of this invention, is virtu ¬ ally absent. Furthermore, the manufactured blocks may con- tain, for example, 60% by weight and even more of sc.-αs such as ashes coming from garbage incineration plants, ana for example 80% or more the case of the confinement cf slag. The process of this invention is therefore particu ¬ larly economic, as more as the phenol used as the first startmg material is a little expensive material. It will also be possible to add to the system compris ¬ ing the resol, the crosslinking agent, and the solid mate ¬ rials to be confined, a dyestuff which may serve for the marking of the nature of the solid materials after the hardening of the system. The following is a non-exhaustive list of solid mate¬ rials which can be confined by the present process: - Incineration ashes - smoke residues - flow ashes - industrial wastes - nuclear residues - toxic residues (medicines, pesticides, etc.) - contaminated earth - dried sludges from water treatments - slag and ashes from coal, etc. The following Examples explain the present invention further without limiting it in any way. In the Examples, residues are treated coming frorr smokes of the installation for the incineration of garoage situated in Cheneviers, Geneva, Switzerland. These resi ¬ dues are named RPSHGI ("Residues of the Purification cf Smoke from Household Garbage Incineration") . Furthermore, other materials were used such as silica, foundry sanαs, coal slag, coal fines, etc. The pH value of these suo- stances, measured in aqueous solution or dispersion, varies between 5 and 12. The ratio between the solid materials and the res and crosslinking agent may vary depending on the nature cf the solid materials and the desired or necessary degree cf confinement. Exampl e 1 In this Example, the confinement of a RPSHGI wi -. be described. The RPSHGI is a grayish powdery mass contain¬ ing, according to an analysis by X-ray diffraction, the following substances: CaC0 3 , NaCl, KCl, Sι0 2 , CaS0 and metals such as Pb, Mo, Bi, Zn, Cd, Al . As a first step, a sample is pre-treated by sulfuric acid m the following manner: 20 ml of concentrated H2SO 4 are diluted with 180 ml of water, 30 g of RPSHGI are introduced mto the acid sclu- tion, and the mixture is stirred during 30 mmutes. The mixture is then filtered, and the solid filtration cake is washed twice with 200 ml of water each. The RPSHGI thus treated is recovered by filtration and then dried m an oven at 80 to 100°C. To this pre-treated and dried sample which weighs 12.5 g, 4.675 g of a liquid crosslinking system are addeα that contains sulfonated phenolic oligomers, prepared in the following way: 10 ml of 95% sulfuric acid are slowly introduced mto 220 g of phenol, contammg about 10* of water, under st_r- rmg at a temperature of about 40°C. Then, 45 ml of aque¬ ous formalin of 37% are slowly introduced with continued stirring under control of the temperature which must net exceed 40°C. Then, stirring is continued for another hour. The oligomer solution thus obtamed is decanted, and the phenolic phase is separated from the aqueous one. The aqueous phase is brought to dryness, leaving a liquid preparation of phenolics. 70 ml of 95- sulfuric aciα are then introduced slowly and in taking care that the tempera- ture does not rise over 50°C, mto 245 ml of the liquid oligomers obtamed in the previous step. After the end of introduction, stirring is continued for 16 hours. The sul- fonated phenolic oligomers are obtamed the form of a concentrated aqueous solution. The mixture of the RPSHGI and the sulfonated phenolic oligomers is prepared at ambient temperature under mechani- cal stirring. The mixture is then transferred at ambient temperature into an open mould, 14.06 g of liquid phenolic resm are added, thus a low condensed resol, obtained in the following manner: 862.5 g of phenol that contains small amounts of water are mixed with 20.5 g of an aqueous NaOH solution. 36 " g of paraformaldehyde are portionwise introduced mto this mixture durmg one hour. The temperature of the reaction mixture is controlled to a value between 40 and 50°C. Af¬ ter the introduction is completed, stirring is continued for at least 10 hours at the indicated temperature. The resol thus obtamed is then transferred mto an appropriate recipient where it is cooled down to room temperature. When this resol is added as described above, a very rapid exothermic reaction is observed which yields after a few seconds a solid block having a density of 670 g/dm J . Example 2 50 g of silica, namely a sand of Fontamebleau, and 5.3 g of the crosslinking agent of Example 1 are blended. 16 g of the resol of Example 1 are added to the blend. The very rapid exothermic crosslinking reaction yields, after unmouldmg, a solid block havmg a density of 1,500 g/dm- 3 . Example 3 To 50 g of untreated foundry sand, 5.3 g of the liquid crosslinking agent according to Example 1 are added and me- chanically blended. 16 g of liquid resol are mixed int: this blend. The crosslinking in an open mould yields a solid block having a density of 1,270 g/dm 3 . Example 4 To 25 g of mortar crushed coal slag, 0.25 g of liquid crosslinking agent are added, and mixing is effected by me¬ chanical means. At room temperature (20 to 25°C), 18.75 g of liquid resol are added under stirring. The reticulation of the system yields after unmoulding a solid block having a density of 750 g/dm 3 . Example 5 25 g of coal fines are treated under mechanical stir¬ ring with a IN to 1.8N sulfuric acid solution. The solids are recovered by filtration and washed twice with 180 ml of water each. The pre-treated coal fines are recovered rr filtration and then dried at ambient temperature. To 25 g of thus pre-treated coal fines, 6.25 g of liq ¬ uid crosslinking agent are added. 18.75 g of liquid resel are then added to the mixture. The spontaneous crosslmk- mg yields a solid block having a density of 1,070 g/dm 3 . Example 6 12.5 g of pre-treated RPSHGI, see Example 1, are si ¬ multaneously blended, under vigorous stirring or by extru ¬ sion, with 4.675 g of the crosslinking agent and 14.1 g cf the phenolic resin described in Example 1. The mixmg is made in an appropriate mould, and if an extruder is used, the issuing blend is directly extruded into the mould. A very rapid exothermic reaction is observed which yields after a few seconds a solid block having a density of about 670 g/dm 3 . Lixiviation tests which have been conducted using pure water, acidic water and basic water at different tem¬ peratures and time durations, have shown that the concen¬ tration of lixiviated heavy metal ions is by several orders of magnitude lower than the lowest legal standard concen¬ trations as issued in industrialized countries. The fact that even highly toxic substances can now be transformed into solid bodies which can no longer be at¬ tacked by atmospheric influences, opens a field for the valorization of these bodies. Known bodies of confined wastes had to be stored until now in safe grounds and could by no means be used in any way. However, the solid bodies obtained by the process of the present invention can now be used further, for example, when appropriately shaped, as construction bricks, under-road pavement granulate, railway- beds, crossties, girders, etc. The resistance of the solid shaped bodies of this invention against lixiviation and other atmospheric attacks remains ascertained even if tne bodies will break or are comminuted since these resistance properties are homogeneously identical throughout the wncle bodies . To complete the present disclosure, it should be added that the phenolic resin or resol, the crosslinking agent and the solid material to be confined may be constituted by one, two or more species selected from the respective groups. Furthermore, it may be desired for special applica ¬ tions to cover the shaped bodies that are obtained by the process of this invention, by a more or less thick layer of a mortar, concrete or another hydraulic binder, or to dis ¬ perse these bodies, in particular when they are in granular or other particulate form, in a mass of such a binder, and to allow the binder to harden. For example, this may be desirable when the shaped bodies of this invention should further be used as construction elements, in order tc fur ¬ ther improve the binding strength to concrete or other binders. The process for executing this embodiment need not be described in detail since the ones skilled in the art will be aware how to proceed without special informa¬ tion.

Claims: Claims 1. Process for the confinement of solid materi¬ als in powder or compact form wherein the said materia±s are imprisoned within a solid matrix, comprising the fol- lowing steps : (A) preparing a mixture containing at least (1) a liquid phenolic resin, (2) a crosslinking agent for said resin (1) , and (3) said solid materials, and (B) allowing or making the mixture (A) to crosslink ana tc form a three-dimensional matrix of a phenoplast wherein said solid materials to be confined are imprisoned. 2. The process of claim 1, wherein said crosslinking agent (2) is selected from partially or wholly sulfonated linear phenolic oligomers, partially or wholly sulfonated cyclic phenolic oligomers, and their mixtures. 3. The process of claim 1, wherein the liquid phenolic resin (1) is a resol prepared from phenol and for¬ maldehyde, this resol being of low degree of condensation and capable of being spontaneously condensed on the addi¬ tion of said crosslinking agent (2) . 4. The process of claim 1, wherein the said crosslinking agent (2) is a partly or wholly sulfonated cy ¬ clic phenolic oligomer, namely at least one partly or wholly sulfonated calixarene. 5. The process of claim 4, wherein the said crosslinking agent (2) further contains at least one partly or wholly sulfonated linear phenolic oligomer. 6. The process of claim 1, wherein the said solid materials to be confined (3) are blendeα with the said liquid phenolic resin (1), the said crosslinking agent (2) is added, an intimate mixture is prepared, and the sys- tern is allowed to harden in an appropriate mould to yield a solid shaped body. 7. The process of claim 1, wherem the saiα solid materials to be confined (3) are blended with the said crosslinking agent (2), the said liquid phenolic resm (1) is added, an intimate mixture is prepared, and the sys¬ tem is allowed to harden m an appropriate mould to yιe-_d a solid shaped body. 8. The process of claim 1, wherein a first por¬ tion of the solid materials to be confined (3) is blendeα with the liquid phenolic resm (1) and a second portion of the solid materials to be confined (3) is blended with the crosslinking agent (2), the two partial mixtures are com ¬ bined, and the system is allowed to harden m an appropri¬ ate mould to yield a solid shaped body. 9. The process of claim 1, wherein the said solid materials to be confined (3), the said crossl inα agent (2) and the said liquid phenolic res (1) are simul ¬ taneously blended in an appropriate mould to form an inti ¬ mate mixture, and the system is allowed to harden tc yield a solid shaped body. 10. The process of claim 1, further comprising adding a dyestuff to the liquid phenolic resm (1) and/cr to the crosslinking agent (2) . 11. The process of any one of claims 6 to 9, fur- ther comprising covering the shaped bodies that are ob- tained by a layer of mortar, concrete or another hydraulic binder, and to harden the coated shaped body. 12. The process of claim 1, comprising carry α out the process at ambient temperature and pressure. 13. The process of claim 1, wherein the solid ma¬ terials to be confined (3) are garbage or waste incinera¬ tion ashes. 14. A shaped body comprising at least one waste solid material in powder or compact form contamed within a solid confining material, wherein said waste material is imprisoned within a solid matrix formed by crosslinking a mixture contammg at least one phenolic resm and at least a crosslinking agent for this said resm, said mixture fur¬ ther containing the solid waste material or materials to be confined. 15. The shaped body of claim 14, obtamed ir tne process according to any one of claims 6 to 9. 16. The shaped body of claim 14 or 15, wherein said waste material is highly toxic. 17. The shaped body of claim 14 or 15, wnereir said waste material is garbage or waste incineration ash. 18. The shaped body obtamed m the process ac ¬ cording to claim 11 wherein at least one solid body ob¬ tained by the process of any one of claims 6 to 9 is sur- rounded by a hardened hydraulic binder material such as concrete.

Inventors: CHOQUARD PHILIPPE, LAMARTINE ROGER JEAN PAUL, CHOQUARD, PHILIPPE, LAMARTINE, ROGER, JEAN, PAUL
Applicants: CHOQUARD PHILIPPE, FILLGER S A, LAMARTINE ROGER JEAN PAUL, CHOQUARD, PHILIPPE, FILLGER S.A., LAMARTINE, ROGER, JEAN, PAUL
Application year: 1996
Main classification: C08L61
IPC codes: A62D3, A62D101, B09B3, C08L61