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Many water treatment technologies for arsenic removal that are used today produce arsenic-bearing solid residuals (ABSR), which are disposed in mixed solid waste landfills. It is now well established that many of these residuals will release arsenic into the environment to a much greater extent than predicted by standard regulatory leaching tests and, consequently, require stabilization to ensure benign behaviour after disposal. Conventional waste stabilization technologies, such as cement encapsulation and vitrification, are not suitable for ABSR applications due to their lack of effectiveness or high cost, thus creating a need for a more effective and low-cost treatment technology for ABSR. Arsenic Crystallization Technology (ACT) is a proposed arsenic stabilization method that involves in converting the ABSR into arsenic-bearing minerals that resemble natural materials and have high arsenic capacity, long term stability, and low solubility compared to untreated ABSR. Three arsenic minerals, scorodite, arsenate apatite and ferrous arsenate, have been investigated in this research for their potential application as ACT for ABSR stabilization. Among the three minerals, ferrous arsenate is demonstrated to be the most suitable arsenate mineral for safe arsenic disposal due to its low arsenic solubility and ease of synthesis. An innovative treatment procedure has been developed in this research for stabilization of ABSR to a stable phase of ferrous arsenate using zero-valent iron (ZVI) as the reducing agent. The procedure works at ambient temperature and pressure, and neutral pH. In addition, a modified four-step sequential extraction method has been developed as a means to determine the proportions of various arsenic phases in the stabilized as well as untreated ABSR matrices. This extraction method, as well as traditional leach and solubility tests, show that arsenic stability in the solid phase is dramatically increased after formation of crystalline ferrous arsenat

Several approaches for immobilization of arsenic (As) based on the transformation of its soluble forms (compounds) into highly insoluble arsenate apatite Ca5(AsO4)3 OH have been proposed. These immobilization techniques are successfully applied in treatment of industrial waste containing As. Quite the contrary, treatment of soil contaminated with As by apatite amendments, instead of immobilization of this toxic element, increases its mobility and bioavailability. The mechanism underlying these opposite effects still remains elusive. Here, the stability analysis of different calcium arsenates: Ca5(AsO4)3OH, Ca4(AsO4)2, Ca3(AsO 4)2 Ca5H2(AsO4) 2 and CaHAsO4 was performed, which is based on the calculation of the ion-ion interaction potential (HIP). It has been demonstrated earlier that IIIP, representing the main term of the cohesive energy, is a suitable parameter for assessment of mineral stability. According to the results of this analysis, arsenate apatite with IIIP value of -0.578 Ry represents the most stable chemical form among analyzed compounds. Based on this finding, we proposed a mechanism of formation of arsenate apatite in the presence of hydroxyapatite. This mechanism can explain the suitability of this approach for the treatment of industrial waste and its limitations for in situ treatment of soil and water contaminated with As.