Characteristics of residual organics in municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash

Although heavy metals in bottom ash have been a primary issue in resource recovery of municipal solid waste incinerator residues in past decades, less studied are potentially toxic and odorous organic fractions that exist as they have not been completely oxidized during the mass burn process. Using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and soxtec extraction (SE) techniques, this study investigated the characteristics of un-oxidized organic residues contained in bottom ash from three municipal solid waste incinerators in Taiwan during 2008-2009. All together 99 organics were identified in bottom ash samples using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Among the identified organics, aromatic compounds were most frequently detected. No polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were extracted by SFE or SE. Several phthalates (e.g., phthalic acid isobutyl tridec-2-yn-1-yl ester, dibutyl phthalate and 2-butoxyethyl butyl benzene-1,2-dicarboxylate), organic phosphates (e.g., octicizer and phosphoric acid isodecyl diphenyl ester), and aromatics and amines including pyridine, quinoline derivatives, chloro- and cyano-organics were successfully extracted. Aromatic amines (e.g., 1-nitro-9,10-dioxo-9,10-dihydro-anthracene-2-carboxylic acid diethylamide and 3-bromo-N-(4-bromo-2-chlorophenyl)-propanamide) and aromatic compounds (other than amines) (e.g., 7-chloro-4-methoxy-3-methylquinoline and 2,3-dihydro-N-hydroxy-4-methoxy-3,3-dimethyl indole-2-one) are probably the major odorous compounds in bottom ash. This work identifies organic pollutants in incinerated bottom ash that have received far less attention than their heavy metals counterpart.