Relation between chemical treatments and defect structure of calcium carbonates in industrial ashes

In incineration processes, chemically treated industrial residues (ashes) are generally composed of carbonates, sulfates, and silicates as major components. However, following the nature of chemical treatments, each major phase may present various structural defects or retain various pollutant elements. To try to correlate such defects to the chemical processes, four types of ashes corresponding to four different treatments have been selected. A careful analysis of the calcium carbonate phase is presented. Using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses, some correlations between the X-ray diffraction data and the corresponding treatments are discussed. Using diffraction profile analysis, we propose a method correlating the defect structure of each sample with the treatment process.