Biomass Ashes for Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the largest environmental problem facing the world mining and processing industry because it has low pH and can contain high concentrations of potential pollutants. Biomass ash (BA) can be considered as a potential material for AMD treatment. The main goal of this work was to investigate potential use of Biomass ash of CPK-LA and PK-LA types for AMD remediation. Four UK BAs from diferent fuels (i.e. straw, meat and bone meal, poultry litter), synthetic AMD, and raw AMDs (Belovo and Ursk) were used for the AMD treatment experiments. Batch experiments showed that in 1 h the biomass ash from straw combustion can efectively neutralise the synthetic AMD and the Belovo AMD with removal of potential pollutants at the liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S) of 100–250 and 10–50, respectively. The biomass ashes from straw and poultry litter combustion can efectively remove pollutants from the Ursk AMD at L/S 100 and adjust pH. The metal concentrations of those treated AMDs met receiving water quality standards. Potential pollutants precipitated as carbonate/hydroxide/sulphate, co-precipitated with Fe oxyhydroxides and Ca phosphates, and appeared as new phases such as Ca, Cu, Zn phosphates and Ca, Fe phosphates. This investigation is essential for development of appropriate, environmentally friendly and economically rational waste management

Changes in composition and lead speciation due to water washing of air pollution control residue from municipal waste incineration

Changes in elemental and mineralogical composition, and lead speciation, of air pollution control residue (APCR) from municipal solid waste incineration, due to treatment by water washing, were investigated in this work and are reported in the context of a review of the literature. Water washing was shown to substantially modify the nature of APCR by: 1) removing 23% dry mass soluble salts to disagglomerate particles and significantly reduce concentrations of the associated major elements, and increase concentrations of insoluble matrix elements and potential pollutants; and 2) respeciating elements to form new phases. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) showed that the 500 mg/kg of Pb in raw and washed APCR were comprised mainly of Pb-glass, with some PbSO4, and small amounts of PbO and PbCl2. Semi-quantitative linear combination fitting suggests that the glass in the APCR may be unstable and release Pb under the alkaline pH of water washing, to reprecipitate as PbO. Chemical analysis suggests that some Pb may be removed by washing. Scientific understanding of the composition of raw and washed APCR, and particularly the speciation of potentially toxic metals, such as Zn and Pb, can help in developing effective element recovery and residue treatment, utilization or disposal strategies

The impact of the particle size of meat and bone meal (MBM) incineration ash on phosphate precipitation and phosphorus recovery

Meat and bone meal (MBM) ash was characterized and used for phosphate wastewater treatment and phosphorus recovery. The bottom ash (MBM-BA) with size >250 μm accounted for ~80% and distributed evenly in the >1000 μm, 500-1000 μm, and 250-500 μm fractions, while air pollution control residue (MBM-APCr) distributed evenly among the 250-500 μm, 125-250 μm, and 1000 μm and 8 was favorable to P removal. Based on the compositions of the solid phases, extracts before and after treatment, and Ca/P ratio 1.22-1.73, the phosphate removal mechanisms were dominated by HAP crystallization/precipitation. Using MBM-BA for wastewater treatment increased its P content to 16.30%. Depending on particle size, the acid consumption for P recovery of 84% from MBM-BA was 2.6-3.0 mM H+/mM P. Strategies for management and utilization of MBMA according to these findings were proposed

Colloform high-purity platinum from the placer deposit of Koura River (Gornaya Shoriya, Russia)

A microinclusion of colloform high-purity platinum in a grain of platinum-group minerals (PGM) from the alluvial gold-bearing placer deposit in the south of Western Siberia (Russia) was detected and characterized for the first time. It is different in composition, texture, and conditions of formation from high-purity platinum of other regions described in the literature. The main characteristics of investigated high-purity platinum are colloform-layered texture, admixture of Fe (0.37–0.78 wt%), and paragenesis of Cu-rich isoferroplatinum, hongshiite, and rhodarsenide. The PGM grain with high-purity platinum is multiphase and heterogeneous in texture. It is a product of intensive metasomatic transformation of Cu-rich isoferroplatinum (Pt3(Fe0.6Cu0.4)). The transformation was carried out in two stages: 1 – copper stage including three substages (Cu-rich isoferroplatinum, copper platinum and hongshiite); and 2 – arsenic (rhodarsenide). The formation of high-purity platinum was separated in time from the formation of isoferroplatinum and was carried out by precipitation from postmagmatic solutions