Bench-Scale and Pilot-Scale Treatment Technologies for the Removal of Total Dissolved Solids from Coal Mine Water: A Review
Citation:
Pinto, P., S. Al-Abed, D. Balz, B. Butler, R. Landy, AND S. Smith. Bench-Scale and Pilot-Scale Treatment Technologies for the Removal of Total Dissolved Solids from Coal Mine Water: A Review. Robert Kleinmann (ed.), Mine Water and the Environment. Springer-Verlag, BERLIN-HEIDELBERG, Germany, 35(1):94-112, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
Recent discussions about new regulations to include total dissolved solids TDS) limits would propel interest in the TDS removal technologies focused on coal mine water. TDS removal is not a new concept and has been developed using different technologies for a number of applications, but coal mine water has unique characteristics (depending on the site, mining process, and solid-water-oxygen interactions), which make it unlikely to have a single technology predominating over others. What are some novel technologies that could be used for mine drainage? Which ones could be effective in this application? What are the main requirements, advantages and disadvantages of each one? All these questions are addressed in this extensive review resulting of a comprehensive literature search focused on bench-scale and pilot-scale studies. Several of these studies were performed using coal mine water, some others mine impacted water, and others were performed in other types of synthetic or contaminated waters, but could be relevant to TDS removal from coal mine because they are novel or because they could aid to solve some disadvantages that other traditional technologies may pose.
Description:
Coal mine water (CMW) is typically treated to remove suspended solids, acidity, and soluble metals, but high concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) have been reported to impact the environment at several CMW discharge points. Consequently, various states have established TDS wastewater regulations and the US EPA has proposed a benchmark conductivity limit to reduce TDS impacts in streams near mining sites. Traditional CMW treatment effectively removes some TDS components, but is not effective in removing major salt ions due to their higher solubility. This paper describes the basic principles, effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages of various TDS removal technologies (adsorption, bioremediation, capacitive deionization, desalination, electro-chemical ion exchange, electrocoagulation, electrodialysis, ion exchange, membrane filtration, precipitation, and reverse osmosis) that have at least been tested in bench- and pilot-scale experiments.
