This article describes the VALIRE Project, funded by the EU's LIFE Plus Program, which intends to significantly contribute to the inertization & valorization of heavy slags & ashes generated by municipal waste incineration plants (MWI). The project has various partners including SASIL, an Italian company specialized in the treatment of raw & recycled materials, with a high level of expertise regarding the development of industrial plants dedicated to purifying & valorizing minerals. Project partners also include Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro & the Department of Material Engineering at the University of Padua, experts in the vitrification of industrial waste. This project aims to reach the following objectives: 1) The development of technological solutions, thanks to which it will become possible to inertize & valorize the fly ash & slags produced by MWI plants, transforming them into secondary raw materials which can be used for the production of glass wool, mineral wool, cellular glass, ceramic finishing materials (porcelain stoneware) & synthecrystallized ceramic materials. 2) The use of alkaline earths compounds, which are present in the slags' fine fraction & have distinct basic characteristics in the neutralization process of the solution at 2% H2SO4 derived from the acid lixiviation treatment of the SASIL's feldspathic sands. The same compound derived from MWI slags will be used in the pilot plant that is currently being set up at SASIL, to carry out neutralization of the sulfuric acid solution extracted from batteries for end-oflife autotraction.
