SCREENING AND ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICABILITY OF VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES FOR REDUCING SULPHATE CONCENTRATION IN WATERS INFLUENCED BY THE MINING AND PROCESSING INDUSTRY
Katerina Nikolova, Svetlana Bratkova, Anatoliy Angelov, Petia Genova, Rosen Ivanov, Polina Velichkova
University of Mining and Geology “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, e-mail: k.nikolova@mgu.bg
ABSTRACT. The complexity and specificity of the problem with the release of high concentrations of sulphates from mining sites characterised by sulphide ores requires the application of an adequate selection of existing treatment technologies. The proposed screening is based on three steps – preliminary screening based on the rate of development and commercialization of the technology and the ability to achieve a certain threshold of sulphate removal; screening of technologies based on productivity, costs and other factors; and screening based on the rate of removal of other important pollutants. The purpose of the proposed analysis is to highlight the advantages and limitations of each approach and to identify the most applicable water treatment technologies to reduce sulphates in wastewater, using a unified methodology for evaluation and ranking. The result is a list of technologies classified by their applicability, which can be used as a guide or starting point for further study and a detailed review of the possibilities for sulphate removal from wastewater. For the sulphates removal from extractive waste influenced waters (EWIW), limestone / lime treatment (as a pre-treatment process), the SAVMIN process, the GYP-CIX process and the biological sulphate reduction in bioreactor seem to be the most applicable treatment processes, as among the treatment processes that use biological sulphate-reduction, the bioreactors are the most effective.
Key words: mining industry, wastewaters, SWOT analysis.
https://doi.org/10.58903/dw18921368
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