Reaction mechanism of metal and pyrite under HPHT conditions and improvement of the properties

Pyrite tailings are the main cause of acid mine wastewater. An idea was put forward to more effectively use pyrite, and it was modified by exploiting the reducibility of metal represented by Al under high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) conditions. Upon increasing the Al addition, the conductivity of pyrite were effectively improved, which is nearly 734-times higher than that of unmodified pyrite at room temperature. First-principles calculations were used to determine the influence of a high pressure on the pyrite lattice. The high pressure increased the thermal stability of pyrite, reduced pyrite to high-conductivity Fe7S8 (pyrrhotite) by Al, and prevented the formation of iron. Through hardness and density tests the influence of Al addition on the hardness and toughness of samples was explored. Finally the possibility of using other metal-reducing agents to improve the properties of pyrite was discussed.

Study results of the choice of barium salts reagents for wastewater treatment from sulfates

The research on the removal of sulfates from mine wastewater is presented in the article. A new purification method has been proposed that allows removing a significant part of sulfates by precipitation in the form of barium sulfate. The present studies were devoted to the removal of sulfates from mine wastewater with a sulfate content of 1050 mg/l by introducing various doses of barium-containing reagents, namely barium chloride, hydroxide and barium carbonate. Among the listed reagents, the best results were obtained, using barium chloride and hydroxide. The use of barium chloride with a dose of 2700 mg/l and barium hydroxide with a dose of 3200 mg/l made it possible to reduce the concentration of sulfates below the maximum permissible (100 mg/l) when discharged into a reservoir for fishery purposes. A reliable in operation technological scheme for removing sulfates from highly concentrated mine wastewater has been developed, which makes it possible to reduce sulfates in the treated waste liquid discharged into the reservoir to 100 mg/l and below. In this case, the purification is carried out with separation of streams - in a smaller part (about 26% of the incoming); barium chloride is introduced, in the second - barium hydroxide. After that, the streams are mixed again, settled, sent to the calciner and to the post-treatment facilities and discharged into the reservoir. The resulting sludge is stored in special landfills or is processed to extract valuable components.

Biosafety and Removal Potential of Pollutants in Wastewater by the Microbial Flocculant from Marine Bacterium Obtained from Umlalazi Catchment, RSA

Bioflocculants have been reported to be successfully used in the removal of pollutants and dye decolourization from wastewater as they (pollutants) have negative impact on both humans and aquatic life if not properly treated. Thus, the potential removal rate of a microbial flocculant produced by the marine bacterial strain of Bacillus safensis KX94275.1 from uMlalazi estuary, Mthunzini area, KZN for pollutants from wastewater samples and dyes from different dye solution was investigated. B. safensis produced a non-toxic microbial flocculant showed margin of safety in both breast cancer cells and normal cells with 87% and 96% cell survival after treatment with maximum dosage of bioflocculant solution of 100 µg/µL, respectively. Functional groups such as amino, carboxylic and hydroxyl group were revealed with FT-IR spectrum to be possessed by the microbial flocculant produced. Above 65% of microbial flocculant was attained when the flocculant was subjection to 700 oC using the thermogravimetric analyser. A produced bioflocculant was aqua-solvable and have no inhibitory effect in bacteria tested. This heat-stable and cation-dependent (Ba2+) bioflocculant removed more than 85% dye from different dye solutions, such as basic fuchsine (93%), congo red (87%), crystal violet (90%) and methylene blue (93%), using 0.4 mg/mL optimum dosage concentration at neutral pH. This wide pH (3-12) tolerant bioflocculant showed improvement on both domestic and coal mine wastewaters for the removal of biochemical oxygen demand with 66% and 99%, chemical oxygen demand with 48% and 93%, phosphate with 61% and 59%, total nitrogen with 69% and 68% and sulphide with 71% and 83% removal rate, respectively, and flocculation rate of 91% (domestic) and 95% (coal mine) wastewater. Thus, the application of the bioflocculant on wastewater treatment indicated the tremendous prospective in replacing risky traditional flocculating agents frequently utilized for purification of wastewater.

Separation of Rare-Earth Ions from Mine Wastewater Using B12S Nanoflakes as a Capacitive Deionization Electrode Material

In this study, nanoflakes of B12S were fabricated by plasma-assisted reaction of sulfur dichloride in an ionic liquid at room temperature using europium boride as a hard template. The nanoflakes had an average width and thickness of about 3 1urn and 9.6 nm, respectively, and a large specific surface area of 1197.2 m2 g 1. They behaved like typical electric double-layer capacitors with a capacitance of 201.2 F g 1 at 0.2 mA cm 2 During capacitive deionization to recover rare-earth ions, the nanoflakes had higher adsorption selectivity for Sm3+ than for other competing ions present in real mine waste water. This is due to the strong interaction of the electron-concentered S-groups (S’’’) of the nanoflakes with S m3+. This provides an alternative to construct efficient systems to specifically remove Sm3+ from aqueous solution using B12S nanoflakes. This process demonstrates that other boron sulfide compounds can be used to recover valuable ions by capacitive deionization.

Transformation of Schwertmannite to erdite nanorod via an alkaline dissolution–recrystallization process for the effective adsorption of oxytetracycline

Schwertmannite (schw) is a common Fe-bearing mineral in the precipitation of mine wastewater and/or steel pickling wastewater. It could be easily converted to goethite and hematite via heating or hydrothermal treatment and could be used as adsorbent to remove contaminants from wastewater. Herein, the spherical schw was converted into erdite nanorod by a simple hydrothermal method with the addition of Na2S. Schw was spherical particle with a size of 0.4–1.5 [Formula: see text]m. After treatment, it was converted to erdite nanorod particles with 100 nm diameter and 200 nm length. By adding MnO2 at the MMn/Fe ratio of 1, erdite nanorod grew radially to 1–1.5 [Formula: see text]m, whereas MnO2 was reductively dissolved and recrystallized to rambergite. In the absence of Fe, MnO2 was directly transformed to octahedral alabandite. The product EN-0, prepared without MnO2, showed the optimal qmax of oxytetracycline (OTC, 7479.6 mg/g), which was 12 times that of schw. In OTC-bearing solution, erdite was unstable and automatically hydrolyzed to generate Fe–SH/Fe–OH-bearing flocs, and it exhibited abundant surface functional groups for OTC adsorption. Subsequently, the hydroxyl and amino groups on the side chain of OTC would also be complexed with the Fe–SH group to generate an OTC–Fe–S ligand, in the form of flake-like particles with a smooth surface. The formed Mn-bearing minerals, for example, rambergite and alabandite, also complexed with OTC as OTC–Mn–S ligands to form quadrangular prism with shoulder and length of 10 [Formula: see text]m and 20–100 [Formula: see text]m, respectively. Spherical schw was converted into a well-crystallized erdite nanorod with the addition of MnO2, and the product showed potential applications in OTC-bearing wastewater treatment.

Experimental Study on Single Factor, Orthogonal and Characteristics of SRB Particles Fixed by Biologically Activated Lignite

Aiming at the problems of insufficient supply of carbon source and toxic effect of heavy metal ions in the treatment of acid mine wastewater (AMD) by sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), immobilized particles were prepared with Rhodopseudomonas spheroides, SRB and lignite as the main raw materials, and the optimal ratio of immobilized particles was determined based on single factor test and orthogonal test. The adsorption experiment of immobilized particles was carried out under the optimal ratio, the reaction kinetic process and adsorption capacity of immobilized particles for different ions were analyzed, and the action mechanism was studied. The results show that lignite not only has good adsorption performance, but also can be used as the carbon source of SRB after degradation by Rhodopseudomonas spheroides, so as to solve the problems of low removal efficiency of AMD by SRB and insufficient supply of carbon source. When the dosage of lignite, Rhodopseudomonas spheroides and SRB is 3%, 10% and 10% respectively, and the particle size of lignite is 200 mesh, the overall treatment effect is the best. The removal rates of SO42-, Zn2+ and Cu2+ are 83.21%, 99.59% and 99.93% respectively, the pH is increased to 7.43, the release of COD is 523 mg/L, and the ORP number is -134 mV. The reduction process of SO42- by immobilized particles conforms to the pseudo first-order kinetics, the isothermal adsorption of Zn2+ more conforms to the Freundlich isothermal adsorption equation, and the adsorption kinetics of Zn2+ more conforms to the pseudo second-order kinetic model.