Evaluation of treatment efficiency of coal mine drainage and impact on surrounding waters for selected coal mines

Abstract

Coal mine water usually has high content of trace elements, leading to contamination of surrounding water bodies. Water treatment technologies are used to remove organic and inorganic matters from coal mine water. To evaluate the treating efficiency of conventional and advanced treatment on coal mine drainage, samples of coal mine, carbonate, surface water, and treated water from the treatment processes were collected and analysed. It turns out that the conventional treatment processes can hardly remove both major ions and trace elements in coal mine water. Reverse osmosis technology can reject major ions effectively, but weak in trace elements removal. The analysis of surface water quality suggested contamination by coal mine water in the coal-mine district. To control the contamination and reuse the coal mine water effectively and safe, it is necessary to evaluate more carefully the efficiency of water treatment and potential environment impact of coal mine water on the surrounding surface and ground waters.

Membrane-Based Solutions for the Polish Coal Mining Industry

“…Analysis of 77 coal mines in Western China has shown that 19.4% of them are using membrane technologies to treat saline waste waters, mainly in areas of high TDS and those near industrial parks [ 22 ]. Reverse osmosis was also confirmed to remove major constituents of Xuzhou-Datun coal mine district waste waters, although the trace contaminants were not effectively removed [ 23 ]. Reverse osmosis and electrodialysis are increasingly being used in Chinese coal mines [ 24 ].…”