Sequential hydrotalcite precipitation and biological sulfate reduction for acid mine drainage treatment

Su Yan; Ka Yu Cheng; Christina Morris; Grant Douglas; Maneesha P Ginige; Guanyu Zheng; Lixiang Zhou; Anna H Kaksonen

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126570

Sequential hydrotalcite precipitation and biological sulfate reduction for acid mine drainage treatment

Chemosphere. 2020 Aug:252:126570. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126570. Epub 2020 Mar 19.

Authors

Su Yan¹, Ka Yu Cheng², Christina Morris³, Grant Douglas³, Maneesha P Ginige³, Guanyu Zheng⁴, Lixiang Zhou⁴, Anna H Kaksonen⁵

Affiliations

¹ CSIRO Land and Water, 147 Underwood Avenue, Floreat, Western Australia (WA), 6014, Australia; Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
² CSIRO Land and Water, 147 Underwood Avenue, Floreat, Western Australia (WA), 6014, Australia; School of Engineering and Information Technology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia.
³ CSIRO Land and Water, 147 Underwood Avenue, Floreat, Western Australia (WA), 6014, Australia.
⁴ Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
⁵ CSIRO Land and Water, 147 Underwood Avenue, Floreat, Western Australia (WA), 6014, Australia; School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Nedlands, WA, 6009, Australia. Electronic address: anna.kaksonen@csiro.au.

PMID: 32443266
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126570

Abstract

Hydrotalcite precipitation is a promising technology for the on-site treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). This technology is underpinned by the synthesis of hydrotalcite that can effectively remove various contaminants. However, hydrotalcite precipitation has only limited capacity to facilitate sulfate removal from AMD. Therefore, the feasibility of coupling biological sulfate reduction with the hydrotalcite precipitation to maximize sulfate removal was evaluated in this study. AMD emanating from a gold mine (pH 4.3, sulfate 2000 mg L^-1, with various metals including Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn) was first treated using the hydrotalcite precipitation. Subsequently, biological treatment of the post-hydrotalcite precipitation effluent was conducted in an ethanol-fed fluidized bed reactor (FBR) at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 0.8-1.6 day. The hydrotalcite precipitation readily neutralized the acidity of AMD and removed 10% of sulfate and over 99% of Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn. The overall sulfate removal increased to 73% with subsequent FBR treatment. Based on 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes, the identified genera of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) included Desulfovibrio, Desulfomicrobium and Desulfococcus. This study showed that sulfate-rich AMD can be effectively treated by integrating hydrotalcite precipitation and a biological sulfate reducing FBR.

Keywords: Acid mine drainage; Biological sulfate reduction; Fluidized bed reactor; Hydrotalcite precipitation; Metal removal; Mine water treatment.

MeSH terms

Acids
Aluminum Hydroxide / chemistry*
Bioreactors / microbiology
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Magnesium Hydroxide / chemistry*
Metals
Mining
Oxidation-Reduction
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Refuse Disposal / methods*
Sulfates / chemistry*

Substances

Acids
Metals
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Sulfates
hydrotalcite
Aluminum Hydroxide
Magnesium Hydroxide