Waste water And Mine Water Treatment Solutions That You Need To Know
Mine water treatment technologies help mining companies in Australia reduce the effects on the environment. Mine water treatment technologies are usually tailored for industrial use. The technologies help to produce process water for mining activities, treat mine sludge, re-use process water, and extract minerals from water streams. Xylem is one of the best companies in the industry that produces water treatment systems to match the requirements of specific mining applications, whether it is mining for copper, gold, coal or nickel, there are specific mine water treatment solutions for each type of mining.
Pre-treatment technology
There are different technologies used for pre-treatment of mine waterin Australia. These technologies include process water re-use, seawater desalination, pipeline design and supply and groundwater, grey water or surface water treatment.
Complete range of mine water treatment solutions
There is a wide range of mine water treatment technologies including clarification, biological process desalination, disinfection, evaporation and crystallisation, ion exchange, sludge treatment and handling, and membrane separation.
Clarification for wastewater treatment
Clarification is an important step in the wastewater treatment process and it helps remove suspended solids from wastewater through gravity settling. This provides a clarified liquid effluent. Clarifiers have a secondary function which is the removal of scum that has accumulated on the surface. Removal of this floating matter is accomplished through skimming to a scum collection device. Clarifiers can be rectangular or circular depending on the mine water treatment technology preference and are deployed in primary, secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment applications.
Membrane separation
This is a family of filtration processes. It involves forcing feed water through a membrane at a very high pressure to separate materials from the solution. The processes are classified according to the size of the membrane pore, including ultrafiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and Nano-filtration. Membrane separation is a very important treatment state in a wide range of treatment applications including production of potable and process water, sweater and brackish desalination of water, demineralisation and polishing of boiler feed water, rehabilitation and recycling of wastewater and so on.
Membranes used in membrane separation allow certain ions and molecules to pass through by diffusion or facilitated diffusion. The passage rate depends on the concentration, pressure and temperature of the solutes and molecules on either side of the membrane and the permeability of the membrane to each solute, which is dependent on the solubility properties, solute size or chemistry.
Oxidation and disinfection
Water disinfection by Physico-chemical means involves destroying disease-causing organisms to prevent the spread of these organisms. Processes such as ultraviolet irradiation and ozonation also help in the destruction of contaminants (biological) that remain in the treated water such as the COD and colour. These processes are used in industrial effluent, portable water treatment, municipal wastewater treatment and ultra-pure water applications.
Sludge treatment and handling
This is also one of the most popular mine water treatment technologies and provides optimum solutions to treat and handle sludge. There are different types of systems for the specific nature of sludge.
