Mineral speciation of copper and zinc in flying ash from a thermal power plant

Summary We studied the mineral speciation of Cu, Zn and Hg in fly ash from a large thermal plant burning lignite. By applying various treatments carried out under different conditions and taking into account the solubility and physical properties (boiling and melting point, etc.) and the behaviour towards combustion of the different possible compounds, we concluded that the ash assayed contained 109.6, 114.4 and 14.30 g/g of zinc silicate, zinc oxide and/or zinc sulphide and metal zinc, respectively, as well as 24.5 g/g of copper silicate and 31.2 g/g of a mixture of copper oxide, sulphide and metal. The formation of these compounds in the combustion of lignite is discussed.