Potential for water and metal recovery from acid mine drainage by combining hybrid membrane processes with selective metal precipitation

Acid mining drainage has a serious impact on the environment. Forward osmosis allows the concentration of acid mine waters to favor the formation of enrichment sludges and subsequent selective metal precipitation. In this work, a methodology was proposed to treat mining effluents from the Iberian Py...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: León Venegas, Elena, Vilches Arenas, Luis Francisco, Fernández Baco, Custodia, Arroyo Torralvo, Fátima
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/139624
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/139624
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106629
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Forward osmosis
Osmotically assisted reverse osmosis
Selective metal precipitation
Acid mine drainage
Water and metal recovery
Iberian Pyrite Belt
Description
Summary:Acid mining drainage has a serious impact on the environment. Forward osmosis allows the concentration of acid mine waters to favor the formation of enrichment sludges and subsequent selective metal precipitation. In this work, a methodology was proposed to treat mining effluents from the Iberian Pyrite Belt. Forward osmosis experiments were performed using different osmotic pressures from 0.5M to 2.5M NaCl to evaluate water fluxes and recovery. The water recovery obtained was in the range of 50-80%, and the flux remained above 5 (L•m−2•h−1). Four combined processes were modelled to determine the feasibility of eliminating water and precipitating metals. Furthermore, a new hybrid membrane process was proposed to recover at least 75% of water with recovery yields of Al, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn of greater than 70%. A water production cost of 2.01 $/m3 and a specific energy consumption of 8.03 kWhe/m3 were estimated for the hybrid process.