Use of Ochre from an Abandoned Metal Mine in the South East of Ireland for Phosphorus Sequestration from Dairy Dirty Water

Abstract

Ochre found at coal mine drainage sites in the United Kingdom shows a high phosphorus (P) retention capacity with little mobilization of metals. This indicates that ochre has the potential to adsorb P from agricultural wastewaters for possible use as a fertilizer. Little research has focused on the ability of metal mine ochre to sequester P in an environmentally sustainable way. Untreated acid mine drainage from an abandoned copper-sulfur mine in the Avoca-Avonmore catchment in the south east of Ireland results in extensive low-value ochre deposition. In this study, P-amended water (50 mL) was mixed with this ochre (2.5 g) in batch experiments, and a maximum P adsorption capacity, calculated from the Langmuir equation, of between 16 and 21 g P kg(-1) was calculated. However, mobilization of heavy metals from Avoca ochre in distilled, surface, and dirty water batch experiments was observed. This mobilization may inhibit ochre's use in P removal from wastewaters.

The use of laboratory sand, soil and crushed-glass filter columns for polishing domestic-strength synthetic wastewater that has undergone secondary treatment

“…Although the general trend is the same (i.e. soil has better P retention than, say, glass), the results echo the conclusions of other researchers [30,31] , who found that the Langmuir adsorption isotherm was a poor estimator of P retention.…”

The Effectiveness and Feasibility of Using Ochre as a Soil Amendment to Sequester Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus in Runoff

“…Although the P adsorption capacity of Avoca ochre in the Fenton et al (2009a) study was comparable with ochre tested in the UK, its characteristics were site-specific. Fenton et al (2009a) showed that Avoca ochre was fine-grained and had low particle density (2.3 g mL −1 ), which facilitated entrainment and transportation in runoff during flooding events.…”

“…In addition, the kinetic experiments showed that P removal by Avoca ochre to be very rapid. For example, the supernatant ortho-P (PO 4 -P) concentration decreased by 97% within 5 min of shaking an ochre/P-enriched mixture (Fenton et al 2009a). However, the maximum P retention capacity for coal mining iron ochre is site-specific: 26 g P kg −1 in Polkemmet, Central Scotland and 30.5 g P kg −1 in Minto, Central Scotland (Heal et al 2004).…”

“…Fenton et al (2009a) showed that Avoca ochre was fine-grained and had low particle density (2.3 g mL −1 ), which facilitated entrainment and transportation in runoff during flooding events. The study found that the high P adsorption capacity was due to high iron (Fe) mineralogy.…”

Potential Anionic Sorbent Use of Iron Oxides from Abandoned Mine Drainage Discharges

“…The idea of using iron oxides as filter media or coatings of sorptive filtration media has developed into a popular area of ongoing research (e.g., Heal et al, 2005;Penn et al, 2007;Wei et al, 2008;Fenton et al, 2009;Sibrell et al, 2009). The application of sorptive filtration technologies to address P pollution is an area of study that Boujelben et al (2008) have researched in the industrial town of Sfax, Tunisia.…”