Treatment of mine wastewater by adsorption on fly ash

Abstract

Bakar je jedan od najzastupljenijih metala u industriji zbog svoje najšire primene u poređenju sa ostalim obojenim metalima. Tokom procesa eksploatacije bakra stvara se velika količina rudničkih otpadnih voda. Zbog toga postoji sve veće interesovanje za rešavanje ekoloških pitanja industrije rudnika bakra. Hemijski sastav rudničkih otpadnih voda je složen i zavisi od hemijskog sastava rude koja se izlužuje tokom eksploatacije. Leteći pepeo je vrsta industrijskog otpada koji može da izazove višestruke ekološke probleme. S druge strane, zbog velike poroznosti i specifične površine, kao i drugih jedinstvenih karakteristika, leteći pepeo se takođe može koristiti kao jeftin i visoko efikasan adsorbens za prečišćavanje rudničkih otpadnih voda. U ovom radu leteći pepeo iz termoelektrane bez prethodnog tretmana i peletiziran korišćen je za sorpciju bakra iz otpadne vode. Rezultati su pokazali da je leteći pepeo efikasan sorbent bakra pri čemu su pelete imale tri puta veći adsorpcioni kapacitet u odnosu na mikronizirani pepeo.

Copper is one of the most present industrial metals due to its wide application compared to other non-ferrous metals. During the mining process of copper exploitation, large amount of mine waste water is generated. Therefore, there is a growing interest in solving the environmental issues of the copper mine industry. The chemical composition of these mine waste waters is complex and depends on the chemical composition of the ore that leaches during the exploitation. Fly ash is a type of industrial waste that can cause multiple environmental problems. On the other hand, owing to its high porosity, large specific surface area, and other unique characteristics, fly ash can also be used as a low-cost and high efficient adsorbent for treatment of mine waste waters. In this paper, fly ash from a thermal power plant without prior treatment and pelletized was used for sorption of copper from wastewater. The results showed that fly ash was an efficient copper sorbent, whereby the pellets had three times higher adsorption capacity compared to micronized fly ash.