Transformation of TiO2 (nano)particles during sewage sludge incineration

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) (nano)particles are produced in large quantities and their potential impacts on ecosystems warrants investigations into their fate after disposal. TiO2 particles released into wastewater are retained by wastewater treatment plants and accumulate in digested sludge, which is increasingly incinerated in industrialized countries. Therefore, we investigated the changes of the Ti-speciation during incineration of as-received sludge and of sludge spiked with anatase (d=20?50 nm) or rutile (d=200?400 nm) using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the as-received sludge, rutile and anatase were the dominant Ti bearing minerals and both remained unaffected by the anaerobic treatment. During incineration, Ti reacts with hematite to members of the hematite-ilmenite solid solution series (Hem-Ilm). Up to 80% of the Ti spiked as anatase transformed into Hem-Ilm, a distorted 6-fold coordinated Ti (Ti(IV)sulfate) and rutile during incineration. Up to 30% and 60% of rutile transformed into Hem-Ilm and Ti(IV)sulfate represented phases in fly and bottom ash, respectively. Fe and Ti were spatially correlated in ash derived from as-received and anatase spiked sludge, whereas only a thin layer of the spiked rutile reacted with Fe, in line with XAS data. This study highlights the transient nature of nano-Ti species during sewage sludge incineration.

Automated summary

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) (nano)particles are produced in large quantities and their potential impacts on ecosystems warrant investigations into their fate after disposal. This study investigated the changes in Ti-speciation during incineration of sludge with different sizes and shapes of TiO2 particles, revealing that the transformation of Ti is related to the size and morphology of the particles.