Metal Ion Removal from Acid Mine Wastewaters by Neutral Chelating Polymers: Investigation and Modeling Sudy
Principal Investigator: Dr. Doug Cameron
dcameron@mtech.edu
The goals of this project was to develop chelating polymers to remove metals from acid mine waters without additional chemical addition, to recover metals from the treated waste stream, and to reduce cost and waste volume compared to then-current methods. Although metal removal can be accomplished with several chemical and electrochemical processes, less than optimum conditions can present problems with traditional metal removal techniques. Chelates have the potential to be very effective at removing metals from aqueous waste streams due to the additional binding sites a chelate molecule offers. Initial research efforts focused on computer modeling based on available literature. A comparison of modeling results to experimental and literature results validated the computer model. Based on the validated model, a variety of neutral chelating systems were tested at the bench-scale for metals removal capabilities. Study parameters were removal efficiency, contaminant capacity, practicability, and cost effectiveness. However, several problems were encountered in the production phase, preventing completion of tests to assess the efficiency of the polymers in removing the contaminants.
Activity IV, Project 4
Final Report
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