MEROS Dust Quality of Different Plants and Its Potential Further Uses

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

General comments: This study investigated MEROS dust quality of different plants and its potential further uses. In this study, the characterizations of MEROS dusts of different plants were studied, and the reutilization and treatment options were suggested. It is a well-written paper with high quality and I recommend this manuscript be accepted for publication after major revision. Some opinions and questions to this paper are as follows. Specific comments: Page 24: The introduction of the manuscript should be reshaped. It is important to identify the current limitations and information gaps, but the current introduction is unclear on how the research is built on relevant studies. Page 113: Analytical methods are too messy. Please use subheadings to indicate different analysis methods. Page 230: Why is the concentration of chlorine so high in dust? Page 280-283: Why don't you use XRD patterns to show mineral composition? Page 364: After washing, most of the heavy metals will remain in the residue. You suggest that the residue be returned to sintering. Will these heavy metals affect the sinter? Page 389: Conclusions should can be made more concise without loss of key information.. Page 418: However, literature review is insufficient and some references cited in the results are more than 20 years ago. It does not properly represent advances in scientific knowledge.

Author Response

Dear colleague, we thank you for your valuable input. We anwered all your questions in the attached document.

Best regards

Maria Fürhacker

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

1）The DOC and TN data in Fig.1 were suggested to be changed as the content in the dust.

2) Line 233: Table 1 missed the data of K content in the dust.

3) the disscussion of the potential use of the dust was not sufficient. The residue of the dust after washing was about 10% of the total, which meaned about 90% of the dust dischanged into the sewage. 

4) This paper only studied the salt content and heavy metals in the dust, but paid less attention to the organic matter and  other characteristics. The experimental design and data of this paper were not sufficient. 

Author Response

Dear colleague, we thank you for your valuable input. We anwered all your questions in the attached document.

Best regards

Maria Fürhacker

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors. Please find the review in the attachemnt.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear colleague, we thank you for your valuable input. We anwered all your questions in the attached document.

Best regards

Maria Fürhacker

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

“ MEROS dust quality of different plants and its potential fur ther uses”

Congratulations to the authors. A very interesting article, important in the face of the circular economy applied in the EU. The article shows how recycling of waste generates new waste and requires further ways to recycle it or further utilize it in an environmentally compatible manner.

The article is very well written, modern measurement methodology and analytical methods have been used to obtain precise results and characterize the possibility of direct reuse of dust or leaching residues.

 The authors showed a possible treatment step of waste to avoid problems in the blast furnace process. There were problems with remaining wastewater or eluate and behavior of Hg. This is an open recommendation for further research.

 

Suggestion

 

27 The sintering is a very complex process and about 500 pa[1]

28 rameters need to be controlled and optimized to maintain a high sinter quality.

It requires literature, if not, "many parameters" will suffice. I know many plants in Asia where sinter / roast is produced, with little control over the sintering process and its impact on the environment.

Author Response

Dear colleague, we thank you for your appreciation of our study. We changed as you recommended.

Best regards

Maria Fürhacker

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This study investigated MEROS dust quality of different plants and its potential further uses. In this study, the characterizations of MEROS dusts of different plants were studied, and the reutilization and treatment options were suggested. It is a well-written paper with high quality and I recommend this manuscript could be accepted for publication. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you for your comments, we found small spelling errors and changed Europa to Europe and (W/W) to (m/m). In the conclusion: the temperatures is changed to a temperature of 1200 °C is reached, which is prone to destroy PCDD/Fs. An open question ... was changed to: As open question remains the behavior of Hg, as most of the Hg is attached to the solid residue.

Reviewer 2 Report

No any suggestions for the authors.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thanks for your comments, we found some spelling errors and changed Europa to Europe and (W/W) to (m/m). In the conclusion: the temperatures is changed to a temperature of 1200 °C is reached, which is prone to destroy PCDD/Fs. An open question ... was changed to: As open question remains the behavior of Hg, as most of the Hg is attached to the solid residue.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors. Thank you for the additional input into your paper. I do have some minor additional remarks:

Line 110: Europa ist auf Deutsch, Europe is English – please correct

Line 255: W/W: if this is “weight” percent, you can use Wikipedia to use “standard” way of writing the mass percents (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_fraction_(chemistry)), if W/W is something else, please define what W is

Thank you, kind regards

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you for your corrections. We change in Line 110  Europa to Europe and in lines 255 and 256  (W/W) to (m/m) all 4 times.

Best regards

Maria Fürhacker