Poland still relies largely on coal for energy generation, which creates environmental problems connected to the mining process, particularly the issue of saline waste water discharge. Membrane-based zero liquid discharge systems can be employed to recover important resources from coal mine waste waters, such as demineralized water, salt, magnesium hydroxide, and gypsum. In this paper, we present a historical overview of proposed membrane-based solutions for the Polish coal mining industry and discuss possible further areas of research.
Keywords: coal mine waters; desalination; industrial effluents.