Understanding nucleation, growth, precipitation and breakup behaviors and surface interaction mechanisms of calcite for developing effective anti-scaling strategies in coal mining

加拿大有丰富的煤炭储量。有些煤矿含有高浓度的氧化钙，以方解石（CaCO3）的形式存在，也可能含有其他碳酸盐。当水流经含有残余煤和覆盖层混合物的废石堆时，方解石被溶解并被带到下游。方解石的过量降水会形成河床，甚至改变矿区相关的河岸植被、河岸面积和河道形态，这可能会降低水生生物的栖息地质量。方解石结垢一般发生在煤矿下游一定距离处。因此，方解石的沉淀和结垢是煤矿工业非常重要和具有挑战性的问题。为了防止和控制方解石的析出和结块破碎，对方解石晶体的成核、生长和析出过程以及方解石结块破碎过程有一个基本的认识是非常重要的。在此，我们拟对方解石晶体的成核、生长、沉淀和相互作用机制以及抑制剂与方解石晶体的吸附和相互作用进行研究，这些都与方解石的形成和防结垢密切相关。预计我们的研究结果将对提高对方解石沉淀和结块破碎过程的基本理解产生深远的影响，这将有助于煤炭开采行业开发更有效和经济的方法来管理方解石结垢问题，以避免煤炭生产中固有的相关技术和环境问题。本文的研究成果不仅可以提高煤矿行业的经营绩效，还可以最大限度地减少对环境的影响。该项目的成功将加强加拿大在矿产资源可持续发展方面的领导作用，并使加拿大保持在新技术开发的前沿，这不仅有利于我们的社会、经济，而且有利于环境。

Canada has abundant coal reserves. Some of the coal mines carry a high concentration of calcium oxide, in the form of calcite (CaCO3) and possibly other carbonates. As water flows through the waste rock piles that contain a mixture of residual coal and overburden strata, calcite is dissolved and carried downstream. The excessive precipitation of calcite could build up the streambeds and even alter the associated stream bank vegetation, riparian areas, and channel morphology in mining operation areas, which potentially reduce the quality of the habitat for aquatic organisms. The calcite scaling typically occurs at a certain distance downstream of coal mines. Thus, calcite precipitation and scaling are very important and challenging issues for the coal mining industry. To prevent and manage calcite precipitation and concretion breakup, a fundamental understanding of the nucleation, growth and precipitation process of calcite crystals and the calcite concretion breakup process with addition of inhibitors is of great importance. Herein, we propose to investigate the nucleation, growth, precipitation and interaction mechanisms of calcite crystals with and without selected inhibitors, as well as the adsorption and interactions of inhibitors with calcite crystals, which are closely related to calcite buildup and scaling prevention. It is expected that our research findings will have profound impact on improving the fundamental understanding of the process of calcite precipitation and concretion breakup, which will help the coal mining industry develop more effective and economical approaches to manage the calcite scaling issues to avoid the associated technical and environmental issues inherent to coal operations. The outcomes of this research will not only improve the operational performance of coal mining industry, but also minimize the environmental impact. The success of this project will strengthen Canada's leadership role in the sustainable development of mineral resources and keep Canada in the forefront of new technology development that will not only benefit our society, economy, but also the environment.