Toxic Coal Wastes Need Effective Treatment

28 November 2011

A report into the technology deployed at a number of projects treating waste from coal mining, beneficiation and combustion in Australia, the UK and the U.S. has been published.

According to the research, work in the UK indicated that ViroMine technology reduced iron in coal wastewater from an average of 44 mg/L to <0.5 mg/L as a result of filtration.

The report has been published by Australia based environmental solutions company, Virotec Global Solutions, and looks at the company's own technology for the treatment of solid, liquid and gaseous waste generated from the coal industry.

The company said that its ViroMine technology is a mining waste treatment system developed to treat acidity and heavy metal contamination of tailings dam wastewater, tailings, waste rock, contaminated process water, and other solid and liquid wastes on mine sites.

The report claimed that a project at a large coal mine in Australia demonstrated that the technology reduced aluminium levels from 36.9 mg/L to 0.03 mg/L, iron from 168 mg/L to <0.001 mg/L, nickel from 0.65 mg/L to 0.008 mg/L, and zinc from 0.68 mg/L to 0.002 mg/L.

Additional results from a coal mine in the UK are said to have shown levels of aluminium falling from 72,000 mg/L to 60 mg/L, copper from 34,000mg/L to 18 mg/L, and iron from 280,000 mg/L to 10 mg/L.
 
The company has also published research from its work at coal fired power plants, which it said show that its ViroFlow technology can reduce contaminant levels of wastewater from flue gasses.

Virotec said that its Viriflow technology ViroFlow Technology binds heavy metals in contaminated sludges and solids generated by a variety of industries, converting hazardous solids into inert solids which are safe for disposal. 

According to the company's report, one of its projects at a plant in South Carolina resulted in a reduction of arsenic from 200 mg/L to 0.25 mg/L and chromium from 5.1 mg/L to 0.44 mg/L>.

In addition the company also claimed that work carried out by the U.S. EPA has demonstrated that a ViroFlow filtration system can scrub up to 97% of mercury from flue gases.

According to the report's author, Dr. Lee Fergusson, CEO of Virotec, coal use is set to quadruple by 2020, heightening the global need to effectively treat the increasing quantities of wastes being generated by both coal use and coal mining.

"These wastes contain a variety of contaminants, including known carcinogens like arsenic, chromium, mercury and selenium," said Fergusson. "As some forms of coal waste also contain polonium, thallium and radioactivelead, the effective treatment of these wastes should be of paramount concern to society."
 
The report also drew attention to a number of high profile accidents over recent years that have led to huge levels of environmental contamination by untreated waste.


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