Application of Membrane Processes for Mine Water Treatment

In this study, the possibility of using electrodialysis for the treatment of mine water from coal mining is investigated. The research is focused on mine water in the coal mine Ceskoslovenska armada (CSA) and Jan Sverma (JS). The main contaminants of mine water are sulphates, iron and manganese. Treatment process of this mine water consists of neutralization, oxidation, precipitation of iron and manganese, thickening of the mine water sludge, its flocculation and drainage using the pressure filtration. When compared to conventional technologies of water treatment, membrane technology has a number of advantages (high quality treated water at lower quantities of chemical agents, high selectivity and low energy demands). When considering an application of this technology, it is important to primarily reduce the negative impacts of the raw mine water chemism on the used semipermeable membranes. In particular, it is important to prevent the formation of low soluble (insoluble) salts which would otherwise negatively influence the mine desalination process by electrodialysis. The electrodialysis tests were carried out on the lab-scale units EDR-Z/10-0.8 (Mega a.s., Straz pod Ralskem). The first part of the research was focused on the determination of specifications and operating parameters for the maximum of desalination rate. The laboratory tests were operated in batch mode and feed and bleed mode. The results show that electrodialysis is suitable for treatment of mine water, with contaminant removal efficiencies 90 %. The second part of the research was focused on the reducing of waste products of electrodialysis (concentrate). In the present work was achieved a reduction of concentrate stream from 50 % to 1 % of the total volume of feed water.