Kinetic analysis of constructed systems for the recovery of contaminated areas by acid mine drainage.

INTRODUCTION: Flowing of the acid mine drainage may contaminate the adjacent water bodies causing substantial changes in the aquatic ecosystem. This aspect is the most relevant problem in the southern of Santa Catarina once the contaminated areas are inserted in the watershed of the Araranguá, Urussanga, and Tubarão rivers, increasing the need for recovery studies. These areas are between Criciúma, Içara, Urussanga, Siderópolis, Lauro Müller, Orleans, and Alfredo Wagner towns where a conservation unit exist called the Environmental Preservation Area of Baleia Franca. Aiming to compare the kinetics of the ash derived from burning coal and to neutralize acid mine drainage, different neutralizer, limestone, fly, and bottom ash, was mounted on a pilot scale experiment. DISCUSSION: The transport parameters showed the same order of infiltration and dispersion: fly ash < bottom ash < limestone. The order of measured alkalinity was: limestone < fly ash < bottom ash, with pH values of 9.34, 12.07, and 12.25, respectively. The limestone kinetics of acidic drainage neutralization was first order with reaction rate constant k = 0.0963 min(-1), bottom ash was 3/4 with k = 0.0723 mol(1/4) L(-1/4) min(-1), and the fly ash had higher order kinetics, 4/3, with reaction rate constant k = 27.122 L(1/3) mol(-1/3) min(-1). However, by mathematical modeling, it was found that due to a combination of transport and kinetics, only limestone treatment reached a pH above 6 within 5 years, corresponding to the ideal as planned.

Replacing synthetic with microbial surfactants as collectors in the treatment of aqueous effluent produced by acid mine drainage, using the dissolved air flotation technique.

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a well-established separation process employing micro bubbles as a carrier phase. The application of this technique in the treatment of acid mine drainage, using three yeast biosurfactants as alternative collectors, is hereby analyzed. Batch studies were carried out in a 50-cm high acrylic column with an external diameter of 2.5 cm. High percentages (above 94%) of heavy metals Fe(III) and Mn(II) were removed by the biosurfactants isolated from Candida lipolytica and Candida sphaerica and the values were found to be similar to those obtained with the use of the synthetic sodium oleate surfactant. The DAF operation with both surfactant and biosurfactants, achieved acceptable turbidity values, in accordance with Brazilian standard limits. The best ones were obtained by the biosurfactant from C. lipolytica, which reached 4.8 NTU. The results obtained with a laboratory synthetic effluent were also satisfactory. The biosurfactants removed almost the same percentages of iron, while the removal percentages of manganese were slightly higher compared with those obtained in the acid mine drainage effluent. They showed that the use of low-cost biosurfactants as collectors in the DAF process is a promising technology for the mining industries.