Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Evaluation of resource recovery from waste incineration

residues The case of zinc
J. Fellner a,, J. Lederer a, A. Purgar a, A. Winterstetter a, H. Rechberger b, F. Winter c, D. Laner a
a
Christian Doppler Laboratory for Anthropogenic Resources, Institute for Water Quality, Resource and Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13/226,
1040 Vienna, Austria
b
Institute for Water Quality, Resource and Waste Management, Vienna University of Technology, Karlsplatz 13/226, 1040 Vienna, Austria
c
Institute for Chemical Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/166, 1060 Vienna, Austria

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 24 July 2014
Accepted 13 October 2014
Available online 6 November 2014
Keywords:
Waste incineration
Zn recovery
Resource evaluation
Resource classication

a b s t r a c t
Solid residues generated at European Waste to Energy plants contain altogether about 69,000 t/a of Zn, of
which more than 50% accumulates in air pollution control residues, mainly boiler and lter ashes. Intensive research activities aiming at Zn recovery from such residues recently resulted in a technical scale Zn
recovery plant at a Swiss waste incinerator. By acidic leaching and subsequent electrolysis this technology (FLUREC) allows generating metallic Zn of purity > 99.9%. In the present paper the economic viability
of the FLUREC technology with respect to Zn recovery from different solid residues of waste incineration
has been investigated and subsequently been categorised according to the mineral resource classication
scheme of McKelvey. The results of the analysis demonstrate that recovery costs for Zn are highly dependent on the costs for current y ash disposal (e.g. cost for subsurface landlling). Assuming current disposal practice costs of 220 /ton y ash, resulting recovery costs for Zn are generally higher than its
current market price of 1.6 /kg Zn. With respect to the resource classication this outcome indicates that
none of the identied Zn resources present in incineration residues can be economically extracted and
thus cannot be classied as a reserve. Only for about 4800 t/a of Zn an extraction would be marginally
economic, meaning that recovery costs are only slightly (less than 20%) higher than the current market
price for Zn. For the remaining Zn resources production costs are between 1.5 and 4 times (7900 t/a Zn)
and 1080 times (55,300 t/a Zn) higher than the current market value. The economic potential for Zn
recovery from waste incineration residues is highest for lter ashes generated at grate incinerators
equipped with wet air pollution control.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In 2011 about 23% of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated
within the European Union has been thermally valorised
(Eurostat, 2014), which amounts, together with commercial waste,
to about 78 million tons of total waste fed to Waste to Energy (WtE)
plants (CEWEP, 2011). Besides the production of electricity and
heat, MSW incineration (MSWI) goes along with the generation of
bottom ash and air pollution control (APC) residues, namely y
ashes (including boiler ash and lter ash) and lter cake. While in
many countries bottom ash is already processed in order to recover
some of the metals contained (mainly iron scrap, but also aluminium and copper), APC residues (which amount in total to about
2 million tons in the European Union) have been hardly considered
for resource recovery so far. In all European countries they are clas-

Corresponding author.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2014.10.010
0956-053X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

sied as hazardous waste, which results from environmental concerns regarding the leachability of easily soluble salts (such as Cl,
Na or K) and heavy metals (such as Cd, Pb, Cu or Zn) on the one
hand, as well as the total content of As, Cd, Hg, and dioxins on the
other hand.
Due to these characteristics most APC residues are either landlled at hazardous waste landlls (this includes also the backlling
of former salt mines) or are stabilized with cement or other chemicals in order to comply with regulatory limit values for waste acceptance at non-hazardous landlls. Both practices are associated with
signicant costs, ranging between 200 and 250/t y ash (Astrup,
2008) and the loss of valuable materials (e.g. metals). Contrary to
that, only a small portion of APC residues, mainly from uidized bed
incineration, can be landlled in non-hazardous landlls without
prior treatment.
Only in few European countries attempts are made to recycle APC
residues (Astrup, 2008) or at least parts of them. In the Netherlands,
for instance, y ashes partly substitute ller material in asphalt

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J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

paved roads. Even though the encapsulation in asphalt may last

longer than in cement the dilution and dispersion of pollutants,
resulting from this practice has to be criticized from an environmental perspective. In Switzerland several waste incinerators treat their
y ashes by applying acidic washing. Salts/brine (e.g. for the regeneration of ion exchangers or for de-icing roads during winter time) as
well as heavy metals are thereby separated from the y ash, and the
processed almost heavy metal free y ash cake is landlled
together with bottom ash at non-hazardous waste landlls. The
heavy metals enriched ltrate is neutralized and the hydroxide
sludge rich in Zinc (Zn) generated thereby can be sent to specic
Zn-oxide recycling facilities (Bhler and Schlumberger, 2010). Over
the last few years this so called FLUWA process has been further
developed and extended such that zinc can be recovered directly
at the incineration plant (Schlumberger, 2010). This new technology, called FLUREC, has recently been introduced on large scale at
a Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant in Switzerland (KEBAG, 2013).
Moreover, the recovery of Zn or other metals out of MSWI y
ashes has gained increasing interest in recent times, also outside
of Switzerland. Numerous research activities in different European
countries have been dedicated to a recovery of heavy metals contained in MSWI APC residues (e.g. Karlfeldt Fedje et al., 2010a,
2012, 2012; Meylan and Spoerri, 2014). However, most studies
conducted so far focused mainly on the technical and environmental evaluation of metal recovery (e.g. Boesch et al., 2014). Economic
considerations with respect to metal recovery are rare and limited
to residues of certain WtE plants (Karlfeldt Fedje et al., 2014). A
comprehensive economic evaluation considering different MSWI
y ashes from plants of various combustion and APC technology
has not been carried out so far.
Hence, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the potential
for recovery of Zn from incineration residues generated at European WtE plants, focusing on y ashes but also considering bottom
ashes generated. Filter cake resulting from water purication of
incinerators using a wet ue gas cleaning system is not considered
in this study due to its small mass and low Zn content (Astrup,
2008). The evaluation procedure is based on the framework for
evaluating anthropogenic resources recently developed by
Lederer et al. (2014) is applied. Their approach foresees a combination of analysing material ows of the resource of interest and a
subsequent economic assessment for the recovery of those material ows. The nal outcome of the evaluation conducted represents the classication of Zn ows in incineration residues into
different categories, which have been chosen in analogy to the
classication of natural resource stocks (discriminating between
reserves, marginally economic resources, subeconomic resources,
and other occurrences of low grade).
2. Material and methods
In general, the applied framework for evaluating anthropogenic
resources follows the procedure given in Fig. 1. After an initial
phase of prospection (1), which aims at the identication of relevant stocks and ows, a phase of detailed investigation comparable
to the exploration (2) of natural deposits follows. Therefore, data
for resource ows and stocks of interest are collected and further
processed. Thereto the method of material ow analysis MFA as
described by Brunner and Rechberger (2004) is applied. MFA
allows tracing ows and stocks of materials or chemical substances
of interest with a system dened in space and time. Whereas during the prospection macro-level material ow analyses are conducted, the exploration phase is characterized by detailed MFA,
which also accounts for uncertainties and if relevant also for associated ows of wanted or unwanted substances. In order to extract
the desired material and produce a marketable good, a technology
for Zn recovery is required. By choosing the technology, a rough

estimate on the associated costs can be given (3). The latter forms
the base for the subsequent classication of the different types of
ows and stocks of interest (4).
Due to the fact that investigations have a priori been dedicated
to the MSWI residues annually generated, the initial step of
resource prospection (step 1) has been left out in the frame of
the present investigations. Furthermore, contrary to the evaluation
of Lederer et al. (2014), only ow resources have been considered.
Flow resources are characterized by a continuous availability at
different intervals and are in case of natural resources also classied as renewable resources, which are in contrast to non-renewable stock resources. According to Lederer et al. (2014) wastes
generated can be considered as anthropogenic ow resources.
As for the present case study these ow resources are partly
classied as hazardous waste, costs associated with the conventional disposal of these waste have to be accounted for as revenues
when accomplishing the economic analysis of the recovery technology chosen.
2.1. Exploration of Zn ows in MSWI residues
In order to explore residues from waste incineration as
potential secondary resource for Zn, a detailed literature analysis
focusing on the following issues has been conducted:
 The amounts of waste incinerated in European WtE plants
(CEWEP, 2011),
 the technology of incineration applied distinguishing between
grate incineration & rotary kilns on the one hand and uidized
bed incinerators on the other hand (ISWA, 2006a, 2013), as they
determine the specic amount of different MSWI residues and
their respective content of valuable metals,
 the technology of air pollution control (APC) systems (wet, dry
& semi-dry residue systems) used at European Waste-to-Energy
plants and the respective amount of APC residues (ISWA, 2013,
2006a), both again inuencing the content of valuable metals
(e.g. Zn) in APC residues,
 the Zn content in different MSWI residues (e.g., Auer et al.,
1995; Hjelmar, 1996; Jakob et al., 1996; Abe et al., 2000;
Nagib and Inoue, 2000; Mangialardi, 2003; Aubert et al., 2004;
Hallgren and Strmberg, 2004; Ferreira et al., 2005; Aubert
et al., 2007; Van Gerven et al., 2007; Chiang et al., 2008;
Quina et al., 2008; Bontempi et al., 2010; Karlfeldt Fedje et al.,
2010b; Karlsson et al., 2010; Lam et al., 2010; Schlumberger,
2010; De Boom et al., 2011; Nowak et al., 2013; Boesch et al.,
2014), and
 transfer coefcients describing the portioning of Zn to the different outputs of incineration plants (e.g., Schachermayer et al.,
1996; Brunner and Mnch, 1986; Morf and Brunner, 1998).
In all parameters of interest numerous data sources (as indicated above) have been utilized, which resulted in particular for
the Zn content in MSWI residues as well as for the transfer coefcients of Zn rather in ranges of values than in exact gures. The
deviations observed between the different sources have been
accounted for by using uncertainty ranges for the respective
parameters in the frame of the subsequent material ow and economic analyses.
Based on the results of the literature survey a material ow
model describing the ows of Zn through European WtE plants
has been established.
2.2. Economic Evaluation of Zn ows
The MFA model together with detailed information about the
recovery technology, its consumables and costs for alternative

J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

97

Fig. 1. Procedure for the evaluation of anthropogenic resources (after Lederer et al., 2014).

disposal of MSWI residues, form the basis for the economic evaluation of Zn recovery. To the knowledge of the authors the only technology for recovering Zn from MSWI residues operating at large
scale is the FLUREC process, although other technologies (e.g.
Karlfeldt Fedje et al., 2014) for zinc extraction (producing a metal
concentrate of lower purity) have been developed in the recent
years. Therefore, the FLUREC technology has been assumed for
the economic evaluation of Zn resources present in MSWI residues.
Fig. 2 gives an overview of the FLUREC technology and summarizes the required operating supplies. Detailed information about
the specic quantities of the latter together with data about products and by-products are of major importance for the economic
evaluation. Boesch et al. (2014) who performed a LCA on waste
incineration enhanced with new technologies for metal recovery,

provide detailed information about materials and energy ows

associated with the recovery of Zn out of MSWI y ash. These data
about energy and material ows were subsequently linked with
market prices for the different operating supplies pOPi (including
electricity) and for the nal product, which is Zn metal of purity > 99.9%, pZn, as well as with the amount of the by-product, a
concentrate containing Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd. In addition specic costs
C DPi for landlling the residues generated by the FLUREC technology, necessary investment costs of the technology CINV as well as
avoided costs for the prevailing disposal of residues in Europe CCP
are accounted for (see Eq. (1)). The latter include cement stabilization with subsequent disposal at non-hazardous waste landlls or
direct landlling at hazardous waste sites. Due to the fact that legislation for landlling of hazardous waste (e.g. landll tax) may

Fig. 2. Schematic process diagram of the FLUREC technology (acidic y ash leaching with integrated Zn recovery, whereby Zn powder is to be added for the reductive
separation of Pb, Cu, Cd during solidication) based on Boesch et al. (2014).

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J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

vary considerable between different European countries, rather

large uncertainty ranges for CCP had to be considered. The balance
(Eq. (1)) of all expenses and revenues represent the overall specic
costs or benets of the FLUREC technology CFLUREC. In case CFLUREC
becomes negative, Zn recovery can be considered as economic,
whereas in case CFLUREC results in a positive value, the application
of the FLUREC technology is non-economic at current market
prices.
Assuming that the overall specic costs of the FLUREC technology should be zero, specic production costs for secondary Zn cZn
(/kg Zn) can be determined (see Eq. (2)). In case that specic production costs czn are lower than the market price pZn for metallic
Zn, Zn recycling (using the FLUREC technology) is economically
viable and vice versa.
In order to account for the fact that all data required for the economic evaluation (physical mass ows, prices, costs for disposal of
residues or investment costs) are uncertain, plausible data ranges
were dened and subsequently used to perform Monte Carlo simulations. Thereto the software @risk was used. For the denition of
the uncertainties temporal (i.e. over the last 5 years) and spatial
variations in market prices and costs for disposal have been evaluated. The uncertainty of specic materials ows and energy consumption of the FLUREC technology has been estimated based on
information provided by Boesch et al. (2014).

j1

 C CP C FLUREC
Pn
cZn

i1 mOPi

 pOPi

1
Pl

j1 mDPj

3. Results
3.1. Exploration of Zn ows in MSWI residues

n
l
X
X
mOPi  pOPi
mDPj  C DPj C INV  mZn  pZn  mCon  pCon
i1

(pZn < cZn < 10  pZn). Resource ows whose production costs are
above the threshold (of 10 times the market price) are counted
as other occurrences.
The classication according to the certainty of the existence of a
resource ow is structured as identied demonstrated, identied
inferred, and potentially undiscovered. To perform this classication,
the uncertainties determined for each Zn ow in the residues of
MSWI are used. Identied demonstrated resources are of proven
existence and knowledge is highly certain (condence that the
actual ow of Zn is at least this size is 90%). Identied inferred
resources are dened here as the amount of Zn ows between the
lower uncertainty bound (condence 90%) and the mean value of
the ow. The same amount of the material (due to symmetric
uncertainty ranges) is designated as potentially undiscovered
resources, which may exist but are highly uncertain. Finally, a
cross-classication is accomplished considering both, economic
viability and knowledge. Therein, reserves are resources that are
both identied demonstrated and economically extractable.
The reserve base further includes the part that is identied demonstrated and not protably extractable with current technology
and market conditions (classied as marginally economic).

 C DPj  mCon  pCon C INV  C CP

mZn
2

mOPi is the specic mass of operating supply i (kg/t y ash) and specic energy demand (kW h/t y ash), mDPi is specic mass of residue
j (resulting from the FLUREC process) to be disposed of (kg/t y ash),
mZn is specic mass of metallic Zn recovered (kg Zn/t y ash), mCon
is specic mass of concentrate containing Pb, Cu and Cd (kg Zn/t y
ash), pOPi is market price for operating supply i and energy demand i
(/kg operating supply) or (/kW h), pZn is market price for metallic
Zn (/kg Zn), pCon is market price for concentrate containing Pb, Cu
and Cd (/kg concentrate), cZn is specic production costs for metallic Zn (/kg Zn), C DPj is specic costs for the disposal of residue j (/
kg residue), CINV is specic investment costs for the FLUREC technology (/t y ash), CFLUREC is specic overall costs for the FLUREC technology (/t y ash) and CCP is specic costs for the current practice
of y ash disposal (/t y ash).
2.3. Classication of Zn ows
The classication of Zn present in MSWI residues has been
accomplished in accordance with Lederer et al. (2014) who based
their evaluation framework for anthropogenic resources on
McKelvey (1972). The approach considers both, the economic viability of extracting a secondary raw material from a resource and
producing a tradable good, and the knowledge of the existence of
the resource. For the economic classication, McKelvey suggests
the following terms. Resources are economic or recoverable if they
can be extracted with a prot. Therefore, the production costs must
be below the market price of the product achievable, which means
in our case cZn < pZn. Resources for which the production costs are
higher than the price, but not by more than a factor of 1.5, are marginally economic. Resources above this value are termed as submarginal or subeconomic, whereby according to Lederer et al. (2014) a
threshold factor of 10 times the market price is assumed

According to CEWEP (2011) about 78 million tons of waste have

been utilized in European (EU-28 + Norway and Switzerland) WtE
plants in 2011. This equals to about 90% of the total waste incineration capacity (about 86 million tons) installed. Out of the 78 million tons, the vast majority (68 million tons) is thermally valorised
in grate incinerators (GI), the remaining part of 4.2 million tons is
combusted in uidized bed combustion (FBC) plants. According to
information (data of 350 plants out of 470 plants in total have been
available) provided by ISWA (2006a, 2013), about 45% of the incineration plants are equipped with wet ue gas cleaning systems,
29% with semidry and 26% with dry systems. The discrimination
of the incineration technology (grate vs. uidized bed) and APC
system (wet-semidry-dry) is of signicant importance for the
exploration of Zn ows, since the technologies do not only strongly
inuence the size and grade (with respect to Zn content) of y
ashes (see Table 1), but also the need of operating supplies (e.g.
consumption of additional acids like HCl for acidic washing) as
well as costs for the current disposal practice. Fly ashes from
FBC, for instance, are likely to be disposed of at non-hazardous
waste landlls (due to their comparatively low contents of heavy
metals and salts), whereas y ashes from grate incinerators are
as a rule classied as hazardous and therefore have to be landlled
at hazardous waste sites or stabilized prior landlling at non-hazardous sites. In Table 1 main outcomes of exploring MSWI residues
as potential resource for Zn recovery are summarized. Based on the
detailed analysis of data from more than 50 European WtE plants,
it becomes obvious that the APC control but also the type of y ash
(lter ash vs. boiler ash) strongly inuences the Zn content of the
y ash generated. Whereas for dry or semidry APC systems average
Zn contents of y ashes amount to about 11,000 mg Zn/kg, wet systems may generate residues with Zn contents of about 22,000 mg
Zn/kg y ash (in case boiler and lter ash are collected together)
or even above 40,000 mg Zn/kg y ash (in case that lter ash is
withdrawn separately). In comparison to the contents given in
Table 1, Zn contents of bottom ashes from waste incineration are
almost one order of magnitude smaller (11006000 mg Zn/kg bottom ash Hjelmar, 1996; Mller and Rbner, 2006; Dabo et al.,
2009; Sorlini et al., 2011).
Based on transfer coefcients describing the partitioning of Zn
during waste incineration (between 50% and 60% of Zn is transferred

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J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

Table 1
Statistical analysis of y ash (sum of boiler and lter ash, and APC residues in case of dry or semidry APC) amounts (kg/t waste) generated at Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants with
different ue gas cleaning systems and their respective Zn contents (mg Zn/kg y ash).

Mean
Median
10% quantile
90% quantile
No. of WtE plants
No. of different countries
a
b

Amount of y ash (kg/t waste input)

Zn-content inue gas cleaning residues (mg Zn/kg y ash)

Flue gas cleaning system

Boiler and lter ash of

Wet

Semidry

Dry

22
22
14
30
53
11

42
40
30
53
33
10

40
39
30
54
11
6

Wet systems

Semidry systems

22,100
19,100
14,000
35,700
16
11

11,000
9700
6700
15,600
14
10

Filter ash of wet systemsa

b

Dry systems
11,700
10,800
7600
18,500
9
6

41,000
42,700
20,900
59,600
15
5

Plants with separate collection of lter ash and boiler ash.

In case of semidry and dry APC system boiler and lter ashes include air pollution control residues.

to the y ash and the remaining part to the bottom ash) and the data
given in Table 1, the average content of Zn in the waste feed of European WtE plants have been determined to about 880 110 mg Zn/
kg wet waste. Considering this content and the overall mass of
waste combusted, the following material ow analysis diagram
has been derived (see Fig. 3). In total about 69 9 kt of Zn are annually fed into European waste incineration plants. Almost half of it
(32.5 2.7 kt) accumulates in MSWI residues (bottom ashes and
y ashes from uidized bed combustion) at average concentrations
below 6000 mg Zn/kg ash (see supplementary material). About
17 2.4 kt of Zn are present in boiler and lter ash of grate incinerators equipped with wet APC systems (average Zn content of about
23,000 mg Zn/kg ash) and almost the same amount (18.5 1.8 kt)
can be found in y ashes from dry and semidry APC systems (average Zn content of about 11,000 mg Zn/kg ash).
3.2. Economic evaluation and classication of Zn ows
Based on the material and energy demand of the FLUREC technology and the potential recovery rates for Zn (provided by Boesch

et al., 2014) the different MSWI residues have been evaluated

regarding their specic costs for Zn recovery. In Table 2 all assumptions made for the economic evaluation of Zn recovery from lter
ashes of wet APC systems are summarized. Data for evaluating
Zn recovery from other MSWI residues (e.g. y ash from dry or
semidry APC systems) are given in supplementary material. The
results for lter ashes from wet APC residues indicate that despite
the comparatively high Zn contents (around 41,000 mg Zn/kg ash)
of these ashes, the specic production costs for Zn (taking all
expenses and revenues into account) are about 1.8 0.8 /kg Zn
and thus in average slightly above the current market price of
1.6 /kg Zn (average price over the last 5 year). Nevertheless, the
large uncertainty (standard deviation) in production costs of Zn
(0.8 /kg, which equals 45% of the mean value) indicates that
depending on the parameter set chosen (mainly depending on
the avoided costs for the prevailing disposal of incineration residues), it may be likely that Zn can be recovered at costs lower than
the current market price.
When comparing individual costs, revenues and savings associated with the different inputs and outputs of the FLUREC technology

Fig. 3. Annual Zn ows (in 1000 t) through European WtE plants utilizing Municipal Solid Waste MSW and Industrial Waste IW (uncertainties represent the 10% and 90%
condence interval, respectively) red ows indicate ows of MSWI residues with mean Zn contents above 8000 mg Zn/kg (abbreviations used: GI grate incinerator, FBC
uidized bed combustion, APC air pollution control). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)

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J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

Table 2
Economic analysis of Zn recovery from MSWI residues (using the example of lter ash from wet APC systems) applying the FLUREC technology.
Total costs/
savings (per
1000 kg of y
ash)
Mean

Remarks

 220

Savings for current disposal practice

Materials and energy

(per 1000 kg of y
ash)

Specic costs (positive) and

benets or savings (negative)

Unit

Mean

sd

Unit

Mean

sd

Data
source

inputs
Fly ash
Zinc content of y ash
HCl (30%) of wet scrubbera
HCl (30%) additional
Sulfuric acid
Hydrogen peroxide H2O2 (50%)
NaOH (50%)

kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

1000
41
550
40
15
65
125

/kg

-0.22

0.02

(1)

1
100
20
1.5
15
12.5

/kg
/kg
/kg
/kg
/kg

0
0.11
0.16
0.30
0.11

0
0.015
0.02
0.030
0.015

(3)

Solvents and complexing agents

Primary Zinc (powder)

kg
kg

0.4
5

0.08
0.8

/kg
/kg

0.4
1.6

0.1
0.1

(3)
(4)

0.2
8.5

Quicklime

kg

200

20

/kg

0.08

0.01

(2)

 16.0

Electricity

kW h

347

18

/kWh

0.094

0.005

(5)

32.6

Costs for neutralization of extracted

residues
Required for selective extraction of Zn
Zn necessary for reductive cementation
of Cd, Pb and Cu
Savings of quicklime for subsequent
neutralization of scrubber water in
comparison to current practice
Electrolysis of Zn and plant operation

180

20

(6)

180

Specic investment costs for FLUREC

Means of production and outputs

Total investment costs for FLUREC (per

1000 kg y ash)
outputs
Leached y ash (non-hazardous waste
landll)
Depleted resin material (Hg adsorption)

(2)
(2)


4.4
2.4
19.1
13.9

HCl provided by acidic scrubber water

Required for enhanced extraction of
metals

kg

800

30

/kg

0.045

0.005

(7)

36.0

Disposal costs for leached y ash

kg

0.1

/kg

18

2.8

(8)

18.4

Costs for depleted resin material for Hg

removal from acidic scrubber water

Residual sludge (re-feeded to incinerator)

Concentrate Pb, Cu and Cd

kg
kg

24
9.2

5
1.5

/kg
/kg

0
-1.6

0
0.2

(9)


 14.8

Recovery rate of Zn

0.75

0.025

Secondary Zinc production

kg

36.1

1.3

Necessary revenues from Zn

production
Specic Zn production costs (/kg)

Market value for concentrate of Pb, Cu

and Cd

64.7
1.8 0.8

All uncertainties given in table represent standard deviations sd of normal distribution.

Data sources: (1) Astrup (2008) (2) www.alibaba.com; (3) www.orbichem.com; (4) www.nanzen.net; (5) Eurostat (2013); (6) based on investment costs provided by KEBAG
(2013); (7) based on data provided by ISWA (2006b); (8) personal communication of BSH Umweltservice AG (2014); (9) personal communication of BMG Metall und
Recycling GmbH (2014) based on the assumption that the ratio of Pb and Cu in the concentrate is about 85:15.
a
provided by wet APC system.

Fig. 4. Specic costs (+) and revenues/saving () of the FLUREC technology when treating lter ash from wet APC systems with an average Zn content of 41,000 mg/kg y ash.

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J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

it becomes obvious that avoided costs for the current disposal practice of y ash as well as investment costs for the technology are most
signicant for the economic viability (see Fig. 4). The contribution of
revenues realized by metallic Zn recovery is below 17% of the total
gross revenues, which amount to approximately 300/kg y ash.
For the other y and bottom ashes of European WtE plants, specic production or recovery costs of Zn are much higher (see Fig. 5).
This can be attributed on the one hand to the lower Zn content in
these ashes and on the other hand signicant amount of HCl is
required for plants with dry or semi-dry APC systems. Moreover
recovery costs for Zn contained in non-hazardous waste, such as
y ash from FBC or bottom ash from grate incineration, are distinctly
higher, as the potential savings for avoided disposal costs after treatment are minor. Detailed information about the underlying data for
the economic evaluation of Zn recovery from different types of y
ashes and bottom ashes is provided in supplementary material.
Combining information about the size of Zn ows, incl. their
uncertainties (see Fig. 3) and the specic recovery costs (see
Fig. 5) allows classifying Zn ows in accordance to the classication scheme for mineral resources (McKelvey, 1972). The result
of this classication (Table 3) demonstrate that the total size of
the identied Zn ows in European MSWI residues is 69,000 t/a.
Based on the average market price for Zn over the last 5 years

(1.6 /kg Zn), none of the Zn in the investigated MSWI residues

can be economically extracted and thus cannot be classied as a
reserve, although Zn extraction from separately collected lter
ash from wet APC systems may already be economically viable in
case that avoided costs for the disposal of untreated y ash are
above 230/ton ash.
The reserve base containing marginally economic and identied
demonstrated resources amounts to 4100 t/a (separately collected lter ash from wet APC systems and assuming a technical
extraction rate for Zn of 75%). An additional 700 t/a are marginally
economic and inferred resources, leading to a total of 4800 t/a of
marginally economic resources. These gures are based on the
assumption that at 50% of European WtE plants with wet APC lter
and the boiler ash can be separately collected. A total of 6800 t/a of
Zn is classied as subeconomic and demonstrated, with production
costs approximately 2.5 times above the current market price of Zn
(boiler ash and jointly collected boiler and lter ash from wet APC
systems and assuming a technical extraction rate for Zn of 75%).
Together with the inferred portion of 1100 t/a, the total of subeconomic resources is 7900 t/a. The residual bulk of Zn (47,400 t/a
demonstrated and 7900 t/a inferred) is either low-grade y ash
from dry or semidry APC systems (10,400 t/a of Zn), from bottom
ash (21,200 t/a), from y ash generated during FBC (1300 t/a) and

Fig. 5. Specic recovery costs for zinc (given in /kg Zn) from different MSWI residues.

Table 3
McKelvey diagram for annual Zn ows (in t/a) in European MSWI residues (the uncertainty ranges of the estimates form the basis for the distinction between demonstrated,
inferred, and potentially undiscovered resources).
Identied resources

Potentially undiscovered resources

Demonstrated

Inferred

Economic
Marginally economic
Subeconomic
Other occurrences (low grade)
Low-grade materials

0a
4100b
6800b
47,400

0a
700b
1100b
7900

Total

69,000

0a
700b
1100b
7900
9000

An economically viable recovery of Zn from y ashes would (at current market prices) only be possible at Zn contents above 53,000 mg/kg ash or avoided costs for the
disposal of untreated ashes of more than 230 /ton ash.
b
Assuming that at 50% of all WtE plants with wet APC systems lter ashes and boiler ashes can be separately collected and that technical recovery rates of Zn amount to
75%.

102

J. Fellner et al. / Waste Management 37 (2015) 95103

potential residues (leached ashes) of the FLUREC technology

(10,900 t/a). Regarding certainty, 87% of the identied resources
are demonstrated, and 13% are inferred stocks.

Boom, who provided information with respect to quantities and

composition of y ashes generated at WtE plants in Sweden and
Belgium.

4. Discussion and conclusions

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Current research initiatives with respect to metal recovery from

waste incineration y ashes led us to investigate the potential and
economic viability of Zn recovery from incineration residues.
Thereto a survey about WtE in Europe with respect to combustion
technology applied, air pollution control installed, as well as quantities and qualities (contents of Zn) of solid residues generated has
been conducted. Based on this survey, a MFA for Zn ows through
European WtE plants has been established. Moreover the application of the only technology for Zn recovery applied so far at full
scale (FLUREC) has been evaluated regarding its economic viability,
when being applied to different incineration residues.
The evaluation, based on the analysis of Zn ows through European Waste-to-Energy plants and an economic assessment, indicates that approximately 75% of the Zn present in European
incineration residues, which amounts to 69,000 t of Zn, is hardly
extractable, as production costs would be at 1080 times higher
than current market price.
The reasons are, rst, comparatively low contents of Zn in these
residues (150015,000 mg Zn/kg); and second, the fact that significant amounts of Zn can only be extracted at low pH values
(pH < 4), requiring in the absence of acidic scrubber water huge
amounts of HCl; and third, extractions rate for Zn applying FLUREC
are at best 75%, which implies that 25% of the Zn remain in the leached residues.
The 25% Zn ow that is, in theory, recoverable, accumulates in
y ash of grate incinerators equipped with wet APC. Average Zn
contents of these y ashes are about 22,000 mg Zn/kg ash when
boiler and lter ash are collected together. In case that lter ash
is separately extracted, the Zn content almost doubles. According
to the survey of European WtE plants such separate collection of
lter ash seems to be established or possible at around 50% of grate
incinerators with wet APC. The lter ash of grate incinerators with
wet APC also contains the only Zn (4100 t/a) that could be recovered at production costs in the range or only slightly above the current market price for Zn. In case boiler and lter ash are jointly
extracted, Zn recovery (potential of 6800 t/a) becomes less economic; the specic production costs double and thus rise signicantly above current market price.
The results of the analysis demonstrate that with respect to utilizing Zn in incineration residues, grate combustion in combination
with wet APC and separate collection of boiler and lter ash is
preferable.
Nonetheless in comparison to total European Zn import, which
amounts to about 1.3 million t/a (Spatari et al., 2003), Zn recovery
from marginally economic and subeconomic MSWI residues (y ash
from grate incinerators with wet APC) could substitute 0.8% of
European imports. This share of substitution could theoretically
be increased to a maximum of 2.2% in case that all waste incinerated would be combusted in grate incinerators with wet APC.

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the

online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2014.10.010.

Acknowledgments
The presented work is part of a large-scale research initiative on
anthropogenic resources (Christian Doppler Laboratory for Anthropogenic Resources). The nancial support of this research initiative
by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
and the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also gratefully
acknowledge the support of Karin Karlfeldt Fedje and Aurore De

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