Bench-Scale and Pilot-Scale Treatment Technologies for the Removal of Total Dissolved Solids from Coal Mine Water: A Review

Coal mine water (CMW) is typically treated to remove suspended solids, acidity, and soluble metals, but high concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) have been reported to impact the environment at several CMW discharge points. Consequently, various states have established TDS wastewater regulations and the US EPA has proposed a benchmark conductivity limit to reduce TDS impacts in streams near mining sites. Traditional CMW treatment effectively removes some TDS components, but is not effective in removing major salt ions due to their higher solubility. This paper describes the basic principles, effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages of various TDS removal technologies (adsorption, bioremediation, capacitive deionization, desalination, distillation, electrochemical ion exchange, electrocoagulation, electrodialysis, ion exchange, membrane filtration, precipitation, and reverse osmosis) that have at least been tested in bench- and pilot-scale experiments.