Generation and management of acid mine drainage | |
| Author | Waewmanee Simphan |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-12-23 |
| Subject(s) | Coal mines and mining Acid mine drainage |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. EV-12-23 |
| Abstract | The mines which are taken out of valuable minerals from mine activities was remained some waste the rock or deposits on mine site which can create acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD, which contains low pH and high concentration of sulfate as well as toxic metals such as manganese, iron, copper, lead and zinc, is one of the biggest environmental problems from mining industry. There was a lot of mining site in abandoned mine site several provinces in Thailand that can generate AMD. Ban Hong mine, the abandoned lignite coal mining, in the northern of Thailand is one of an example which is facing the AMD problem. These areas cannot be used for agriculture, and there are very few surviving living organisms. The purpose of this research was designed to simulate the generation of AMD of lignite coal mine from soils and mine tailings by batch and continuous leaching experiments. As the result, the basic characteristics of soil and mining were found that soils are sandy clay loam and was become to alkaline, while mine tailing are acidic and are silt loam. Soil was contaminated heavy metals include manganese which was higher, iron, copper and zinc. Whereas, the heavy metals also were contaminated in mime tailing, the level of manganese copper and zinc concentration but higher level than in soil. The batch experiments were operated with hydraulic retention time (HRT) 70 days. The pH of mine tailing leachate was acidic and was natural in soil leachate. Thus, the acidity in soil was decreased from 8 to 2 mg/l as CaCO₃. The generation acidity was a gradual increase from 24 up to 72 mg/l as CaCO₃. The sulfate concentration of mine tailing was leachate from 556 up to 1274.2 mg/l whereas in soil leachate was increased from 442.9 to 581.2 mg/l. Mine tailing leachate contained high amount of manganese to 16.95 mg/l with leaching potential 94.7%, 4.813 mg/l with 82.3% of leaching potential of zinc and 0.324 mg/l and 14.4% of leaching potential of iron. Soil leachate was presented only 0.155 mg/l of manganese and 0.028 mg/l of zinc. In addition; continuous experiments were contained acidic pH of mine tailing and nature pH of soil both in runoff and permeate leachate. Thus it reduced amount of acidity in soil to 2 and 4 mg/l as CaCO₃ of runoff and permeate, respectively. However, it can increase to 14 mg/l as CaCO₃ in runoff mine tailing same as in permeate. In addition, the average percentage of runoff leachate volume was 68.52 % of mine tailing and 67.4% of soil, while the percentage of permeate leachate volume were 12.26% of soil and 2.2% of mine tailing, thus average holding capacity of soil and mine tailing was 20.4% and 29.36%, respectively. Copper concentration was not detected both in runoff and permeate of mine tailings and soils. Permeate and runoff leachate of soils was not presented of manganese and zinc. Iron concentration in runoff leachate of soil was reached a peak to 1.9095 mg/l in 4th week. Permeate leachate of mine tailing was can detect only first week which was 1.739 mg/l of manganese, 0.103 mg/l of iron and 0.3605 mg/l of zinc. However, manganese in runoff leachate of mine tailing was highest 4.007 mg/l in 7th week. While iron concentration in permeate leachate fluctuated. Zinc concentration in runoff leachate of mine tailing slightly fluctuated while; zinc in runoff leachate was a gradual increase in 4th week to 0.66 mg/l. The standard leaching method was found that WET higher leaching or mobility of heavy metals and sulfate in both of TCLP and SPLP, respectively. |
| Year | 2012 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Preeda Pakpian;Shipin, Oleg V.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Thailand (HM Queen); |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2012 |