New approach for mine water treatment and concentrates of water purification processes

• Main Authors: Ярослав В’ячеславович Радовенчик, Микола Дмитрович Гомеля, Вячеслав Михайлович Радовенчик
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute 2020-06-01
• Series: Вісник Національного технічного університету України «Київський політехнічний інститут імені Ігоря Сікорського»: Серія «Хімічна інженерія, екологія та ресурсозбереження»
• Subjects: шахтні води; концентрати; підземні води; мінералізація; артезіанські горизонти
• Online Access: http://chemengine.kpi.ua/article/view/207811
• ISSN: 2617-9741; 2664-1763

Today, the problem of mine water is one of the most acute in the industrialized regions of Ukraine, as it causes the mineralization of surface water and blocks the provision of quality drinking water to the population. The same problems cause by concentrates of membrane water purification processes. Therefore, protection of the hydrosphere from pollution by mine water and concentrates remains extremely relevant today. The purpose of our work was to evaluate the possibility for disposal of such wastewater by dumping them in underground horizons. The Earth's crust has a layered structure composed of rocks with different water permeability. This fact causes the formation at different depths of aquifers with waters that significantly differ by properties and composition. For underground horizons, two important patterns can be noted - as the depth increases, the water mineralization increases too but the speed of water transportation in the underground horizon decreases. The mine waters chemical composition corresponds to the characteristics of the underground horizon from which they are raised. The anthropogenic pollution such as petroleum products, surfactants and chemical reagents is added in small concentrations to such water during it accumulation and transportation to the surface. Today, most of the mines work at the depth of 500 m and continue to go deeper. On the other hand, in Ukraine the underground horizons which are used to provide the population with high quality drinking water have depths up to 500 m. The deeper horizons have high mineralization and are not suitable for drinking needs. The combination of these two factors allows treating the mine water and concentrates by pumping into underground horizons located deeper than existing mines. The implementations of such solution guarantee significant environmental effect and also significant economic benefits by reducing the cost of transporting of large volumes of water to the surface. As the mine waters have chemical composition similar to groundwater that lie on deeper horizons, but only less mineralized, no negative impact on the waters of these horizons will be observed. The same applies can be used to concentrates of membrane water purification processes, which represent highly mineralized natural waters with a  constant ratio between the components. For shallow mines with fresh or low mineralized water, it is recommended that the wastewater treatment system can be placed in abandoned mines for disposal of waste or pumping of concentrates into the lower horizons. Only waters with necessary characterization for supplying the population are raised to the surface. Confirmation of the success of this method of mine water and membrane concentrates treatment is the experience of returning back - formation waters to underground horizons in oil and gas extraction, which is successfully used today in most wells.