Abstract
This paper presents iron and manganese removal data from a novel low footprint mine water treatment system. The paper discusses possible design configurations, and demonstrates that the system could treat 1 l/s of mine water containing 7.2 mg/l of Fe to <1 mg/l with a system footprint of 66 m2. A conventional lagoon and aerobic wetland system based on standard sizing criteria would require a minimum of 135 m2 to achieve the same treatment. Other advantages of the system are that it polishes manganese concentrations, produces ochre that is dense (15% w/v) and free of plant detritus (and therefore amenable to recycling) and that heavy machinery will generally not be required for construction of similar scale systems.
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The authors acknowledge the EPSRC for providing funding (GR/S66978/01) for this project and the assistance of our project partners, the Coal Authority and Mouchel Parkman.
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Sapsford, D., Barnes, A., Dey, M. et al. Low Footprint Passive Mine Water Treatment: Field Demonstration and Application. Mine Water Environ 26, 243–250 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-007-0012-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-007-0012-6