INVESTIGATION OF WASTE BIOMASS ASH FROM PAPER INDUSTRY

Abstract

The main part of companies in Bulgaria are built, however in the 70s, and upgraded last decade. The country
supplies around 80 % of its supplies of paper, paperboard and pulp with own production. Integrated treatment of
wastes is a priority for realizing closed life cycle of materials. The aim of the present work is to investigate the
composition and other important characteristics of biomass wood ash wasted from paper industry. The correlations
and associations among the chemical characteristics are also studied to find some basic trends and important
relationships between two similar wastes from different enterprises. It was proved that all samples taken contained
Ba, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Al, Fe, Cu and Zn far below the legal limits for such type of products. A product has a certain anti-acidic effect. The other positive result was that the content of iron is between 34 to 60 mg per 1 kg dry waste. The microscopic photos confirmed that the particles are close to the nano-size materials. The content of the elements C, N, H is in good quantities and ratios, which is a prerequisite for their use as a soil improver.

By the results of this study, it was confirmed that all samples produced as a result of the thermal treatment and final low water content achieved are free from pathogen microorganisms and different weed seeds, affecting the yield and soil sustainability. That allows determining the optimal ratio between the used components with a view to obtain products with desired thermal stability and physico-chemical properties as soil improvers.