Alireza Entesari

1
Application of Industrial Minerals for Water
Treatment

• Alireza Entesari
• M.A.Sc Candidate
• UBC Department of Mining Engineering
• Bernhard Klein
• Director, CIMI

2
Outline

• Overview of industrial waste water
• Water treatment techniques
• Industrial minerals applied in water treatment
• Zeolites
• Pumice
• Peat
• Clays
• Suggested methodology and results
• Future work

3
Industrial Waste Water Pollutants

• Suspended Solids
• Dissolved Species

4
Dissolved species in waste water

• Industrial effluents
• Acid rock drainage (Fe, Zn, Cu etc)
• Alkaline drainage (Mo, As, Se)
• Artisanal mining (Hg)
• Oil refinery (B)
• Municipal sewage
• Agricultural run off (Phosphates, Nitrates)

5
Treatment Techniques

• Precipitation (lime)
• Adsorption
• Activated Carbon
• Reverse Osmosis
• Ion exchange
• Flotation

6
Industrial Minerals Characteristics for Water
Treatment

• Cation exchange capacity
• The possibility to re-generate the mineral for
  re-use and to recover the metals
• Physical properties
• Specific surface area
• Encapsulation capability for heavy metals

7
Natural Minerals and Organic Materials which can
be Used

• Zeolites
• Pumice
• Clay
• Peat

8
Zeolite Properties for Water Treatment Application

• Open, cage-like structures
• High cation exchange capacities
• High internal and external surface areas
• High permeabilities
• Pozzolanic properties

9
Pumice Properties for Water Treatment Application

• High ion exchange capacity
• Large surface area
• High porosity
• Pozzolanic activity

10
Clays Properties for Water Treatment Application

• Large surface area
• Negative excess charge

11
Peat Properties for Water Treatment Application

• High cation exchange capacity
• High pore space
• Relatively high permeability
• Compressibility
• Low density

12
Methodology

• Screening Sorption Tests
• Natural ion exchange capability
• Activation tests
• Chemical activation
• Thermal activation
• Modifying with surfactants
• Flotation
• Precipitate flotation
• Ion flotation

13
Methodology

• Screening sorption tests
• Natural ion exchange capability
• Results for Pumice Samples

14
Methodology

• Screening Sorption Tests
• Activation tests
• Chemical Activation
• HCl leach at constant pH of 3 for 24 hours

15
Methodology

• Screening Sorption Tests
• Pretreatment
• Chemical Activation
• Thermal Activation
• Calcination at 1000 K

16
Methodology

• Screening Sorption Tests
• Pretreatment
• Chemical Activation
• Thermal Activation
• Modifying with Surfactants

17
Surfactant Modified Zeolite (SMZ)

• Adsorbing cationic surfactant
• Reversing the external surface charge

Bowman, RS, Surfactant-enhanced Subsurface
Remediation Acs Symposium Series, 1995
18
Mechanisms of Surfactant and Contaminant Sorption
Professor R. Bowman. New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology

• Anion Exchange
• Organic Partitioning
• Cation Exchange

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Cation exchange on SMZ
Bowman, RS, Surfactant-enhanced Subsurface
Remediation Acs Symposium Series, 1995
20
Anion exchange on SMZ
Bowman, RS, Surfactant-enhanced Subsurface
Remediation Acs Symposium Series, 1995
21
Organic adsorption of SMZ
Bowman, RS, Surfactant-enhanced Subsurface
Remediation Acs Symposium Series, 1995
22
Treatment Techniques

• Column Test
• In-situ Permeable Barrier

Professor R. Bowman. New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology
23
Flotation

• Precipitate Flotation
• Borax
• RNH3Cl (s) ? RNH3(aq) Cl-
• 2RNH3 B4O72- ? (RNH3) 2B4O7(s)
• RNH3 HB4O7- ? RNH3HB4O7 (s)
• Ion Flotation
• Gold Cyanide

24
Future Work

• Desorption
• Simulation of a treatment system
• Elution, regenerating and disposal
• Encapsulation testing

25
CIMI
The Centre for Industrial Minerals Innovations at
the University of British Columbia promotes the
development of Industrial Mineral Mines
by providing critical services to help
create marketable products