X-ray fluorescence measurements of toxic metal content in ash from municipal solid waste incineration

The vision of this paper is development of an online X-ray fluorescence method for monitoring of metal content in ash from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration. With such measurements directly on site it is possible to optimize an ash washing process in incineration plants, allowing the fly ash to be stored in a landfill for non-hazardous waste. The presented X-ray fluorescence measurement assures that the measurement accuracy is sufficient for metal content monitoring. The actual measurement process is also fast enough to be possible to implement as an online measurement method. The optimal measurement setup is different for different metals. Several different metals might need environmental monitoring, which metals might vary over time due to systematic variations in waist content. Detection of a wide range of metals will require an X-ray source with variable voltage and multiple detectors.