Abstract: A flow-through wetland treatment system was constructed to treat coal combustion by-product leachate from an electrical power station at Springdale, Pennsylvania. In a nine-compartment treatment system, four cattail (Typha latifolia L.) wetland cells (designated Cells I through 4) successfully removed iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) from the inlet water; Fe and Mn concentrations were decreased by an average of 91% in the first year (May 1996-May 1997), and by 94 and 98% in the second year (July 1997-June 1998), respectively. Cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) were decreased by an average of 39 and 47% in the first year, and 98 and 63% in the second year, respectively. Most of the metal removed by the wetland cells was accumulated in sediments, which constituted the largest sink. Except for Fe, metal concentrations in the sediments tended to be greater in the top 5 em of sediment than in the 5- to 10- or 10- to 15-cm layers, and in Cell I than in Cells 2, 3, and 4. Plants constituted a much smaller sink for metals; only 0.91, 4.18, 0.19, and 0.38% of the Fe, Mn, Co, and Ni were accumulated annually in the aboveground tissues of cattail, respectively. A greater proportion of each metal (except Mn) was accumulated in cattail fallen litter and submerged Chara (a macroalga) tissues, that is, 2.81, 2.75, and 1.05% for Fe, Co, and Ni, respectively. Considerably higher concentrations of metals were associated with cattail roots than shoots, although Mn was a notable exception.

Abstract: Sulfide precipitation flotation of copper-iron-bearing acidic waste water from a large copper mine and the stimulated waste water were studied. The pH of the waste water was 2.2, with 130 mg/L Cu2+ and 500 mg/L Fe3+ (Fe2+). Results show that, when Na2S was added as precipitating agent, sodium butylxanthate as collector and at pH 2.0, the removal of copper could be as high as 99.7 % and the residual copper decreased to 0.2 mg/L, however, almost no iron was removed. When the floated solution was neutralized to pH = 8.0, more than 98 % iron was precipitated and the residual iron was less than 10 mg/L. In experiment on actual mine effluents, after the use of precipitate flotation technology to recover copper and pH neutralization to precipitate iron, the treated waste water does meet the emission standards for sewage and valuable floating copper graded 37.12%. The chemical calculation and mechanism of solution were also presented.

Abstract: A considerable part of water obtained by drainage of Polish coal-mines is saline which creates substantial ecological problems. The load of salt (mainly sodium chloride) amounts to 5 min t/year. Despite the utilisation of saline coalmine waters is considered to be the most adequate method of solving ecological problems caused by this kind of water in Poland there are only two installations utilising coal-mine waters and producing 100,000 t salt per year. In the case of the most concentrated waters, the so-called coal-mine brines, the method of concentrating by evaporation in twelve-stage expansion installation or vapour compression is applied, after which sodium chloride is manufactured. In the case of low salinity waters they are preconcentrated first by RO method. High energy consumption in above-mentioned methods of evaporation is a considerable restriction in the utilisation of coal-mine brines. An obstacle in the application of low energy evaporation processes, e.g. multi-stage flash, is the high concentration of calcium and sulphate ions in the coal-mine waters.