The increase of global environmental restrictions concerning solid and liquid industrial waste, in addition to the problem of climate change, which leads to a shortage of clean water resources, has raised interest in developing alternative and eco-friendly technologies for recycling and reducing the amount of these wastes. This study aims to utilize Sulfuric acid solid residue (SASR), which is produced as a useless waste in the multi-processing of Egyptian boiler ash. A modified mixture of SASR and kaolin was used as the basic component for synthesizing cost-effective zeolite using the alkaline fusion-hydrothermal method for the removal of heavy metal ions from industrial wastewater. The factors affecting the synthesis of zeolite, including the fusion temperature and SASR: kaolin mixing ratios, were investigated. The synthesized zeolite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size analysis (PSD) and N₂ adsorption-desorption. The SASR: kaolin weight ratio of 1:1.5 yields faujasite and sodalite zeolite with 85.21% crystallinity, which then shows the best composition and characteristics of the synthesized zeolite. The factors affecting the adsorption of Zn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Cd²⁺ ions from wastewater on synthesized zeolite surfaces, including the effect of pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial concentration, and temperature, have been investigated. The obtained results indicate that a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model describe the adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacities of Zn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Cd²⁺ ions onto zeolite at 20 °C were 12.025, 15.96, 12.247, and 16.17 mg·g⁻¹, respectively. The main mechanisms controlling the removal of these metal ions from aqueous solution by synthesized zeolite were proposed to be either surface adsorption, precipitation, or ion exchange. The quality of the wastewater sample obtained from the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (Eastern Desert, Egypt) was highly improved using the synthesized zeolite and the content of heavy metal ions was significantly reduced, which enhances the utilization of the treated water in agriculture.

The water leaching solid residues (WLSR) obtained from salt-roasting Egyptian boiler ash are considered an essential secondary resource for (13%) nickel and (5.6%) zinc extraction. Hence, the current study aims for the cost-effective and high purity Ni, Zn, Fe and Mg metal ion extraction from (WLSR) using a sulfuric acid leaching process. The factors affecting the percentage recovery of Ni, Zn, Fe and Mg from WLSR, including leaching temperature, time, acid concentration and solid/liquid ratio, have been investigated. The obtained leaching solutions were analyzed chemically using ICP, and the different precipitates were analyzed mineralogically using XRD and EDX analysis and chemically using XRF. The maximum percentage recovery of Ni, Zn, Fe and Mg was 95.02%, 90.13%, 66.29% and 75.73%, which was obtained under the optimum leaching conditions of 8% H₂SO₄ concentration and 1/15 solid/liquid ratio at 85 °C for 240 min. The effect of pH, Fe₂O₃ dosage as nucleating agent and the precipitation duration on iron removal and Ni and Zn loss have been thoroughly studied. It has been found that >95% of the contained iron impurity can be removed, while nickel and zinc losses are around 4.2% and 3.8%, respectively. Additionally, a pH of 6 and 0.45 mol/L concentration of H₂C₂O₄ was utilized to precipitate Mg as MgC₂O₄.2H₂O, demonstrating that the precipitation efficiency of Mg reaches 96.9%. Nickel and zinc precipitation efficiency was 92.25% and 85.51%, respectively, by raising the solution pH to approximately 9. The kinetic of Ni and Zn dissolution has been investigated to explain the mechanism prevalent and the factors influencing the leaching process. It has been found that the nickel leaching kinetic is controlled by both diffusion through an inert porous layer and by chemical reaction with an activation energy of 20.25 kJ.mol⁻¹. Meanwhile, the kinetic of zinc leaching is controlled by solid product layer diffusion with an activation energy of 11.67 kJ mol⁻¹.

Achieving the New World Sustainability Vision 2030 leads to enacting environmental restrictions, which aim to partially or totally reduce the negative impacts of different forms of waste and develop alternative technologies for eco-friendly and cost-effective utilization. Solid waste is a hazardous waste with many environmental and economic problems resulting from its storage and disposal. However, at the same time, these wastes contain many valuable elements. One of these solid wastes is heavy oil fly ash “HOFA” generated in power stations using heavy oil as fuel. HOFA is produced annually in massive amounts worldwide, the storage of which leads to the contamination of water resources by the contained heavy metals, resulting in many cancerogenic diseases. At the same time, these ashes contain many valuable metals in significant amounts, such as vanadium “V” and nickel “Ni” that can be extracted effectively compared to their low content and difficulty processing in their main ores. Hence, recycling these types of wastes reduces the environmental adverse effects of their storage and the harmful elements in their composition. This paper critically reviews the world resources of vanadium-bearing waste and various approaches described in the literature for recovering V, Ni, as well as other valuable metals from (HOFA) and other wastes, including pyro- and hydro-metallurgical processes or a combination. Hydro-metallurgical processes include alkaline or acidic leaching using different reagents followed by chemical precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion exchange to extract individual elements. The pyro-metallurgical processes involve the non-salt or salt roasting processes followed by acidic or alkaline leaching processes. The operational parameters and their impact on the efficiency of recovery are also discussed. The digestion mixtures of strong mineral acids used to dissolve metal ions in HOFA are also investigated. Bioleaching is a promising eco-friendly technology for recovering V and Ni through appropriate bacteria and fungi. Oxidation leaching is also a promising environmentally friendly approach and more effective. Among all these processes, the salt roasting treatment showed promising results concerning the cost, technological, and environmental effectiveness. The possibility of complex processing of HOFA has also been investigated, proposing innovative technology for completely utilizing this waste without any remaining residue. Effective zeolite for wastewater treatment has been formulated as a good alternative for conserving the available water resources.