Development of an eco-friendly adsorbent for selective removal of selenium in uranium mining wastewater

在过去的十年里，采矿作业导致的硒(Se)的存在已经成为世界各地水域中日益严重的质量和健康问题。尽管硒有营养价值，但其过量会对人类、个别动植物以及种群和生物群落造成短期和长期影响。为了保护人类和环境健康免受过量硒的风险，采矿废流在释放到环境之前需要进行处理。目前的研究项目旨在使用以农业残渣为基础的材料(例如小麦和油菜籽秸秆)，作为更昂贵的商业吸附剂(例如树脂和活性碳)的成本效益和环境友好型替代品来去除Se。加拿大的农业残留物可以为开发廉价的吸附剂提供丰富的来源，并通过增加农业残留物的价值来造福农业经济。这些生物质基吸附剂的应用研究将有可能降低处理矿山废水中Se和其他金属(Loid)S的成本。在当前的研究中，我们将开发生物质基吸附剂，通过吸附选择性地从矿山废水中脱除Se。选择性吸附将缩短吸附平衡时间，延长连续操作时间，从而以较低的成本实现高效工艺。这些低成本的吸附剂也可能适用于加拿大其他地区的采矿或其他工业，甚至适用于面临水中高浓度Se的发展中国家。通过该项目开发的专门知识和技术有可能用于开发生物质基吸附剂，以吸附其他金属(固体)、S或新兴污染物。此外，考虑到生物质基吸附剂与商业吸附剂相比的成本效益，预计它们在水和废水处理市场的需求将大幅增长。

Over the past decade, the presence of selenium (Se) due to mining operations has become an increasingly serious quality and health concern in waters worldwide. Despite the nutritional benefits of Se, its excess can cause short-term and long-term effects in humans, individual plants and animals, and populations and communities of organisms. To safeguard both human and environmental health from risk of excess Se, the mining waste streams need to be treated prior to their release to the environment. The current research project aims to use agricultural residue-based materials (e.g., wheat and canola straws) as a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to the more expensive commercial adsorbents (e.g., resins and activated carbons) for removal of Se. Agricultural residues in Canada can provide an abundant source to develop inexpensive adsorbents and benefit the agricultural economy by increasing the value of the agricultural residues. Investigation of the application of these biomass-based adsorbents will potentially reduce the cost of treatment of Se, and other metal(loid)s, in mining wastewater.In the current research, we will develop biomass-based adsorbents that will selectively remove Se by adsorption from mining wastewater. Selective adsorption will shorten the adsorption equilibrium time and extend the time of continuous operation for an efficient process at a lower cost. These low-cost adsorbents may also be suitable for use in other regions of Canada in mining or other industries and even in developing countries that are facing high concentrations of Se in water. The know-how and technology that will be developed through this project has the potential to be adapted for the development of biomass-based adsorbents for other metal(loid)s or emerging pollutants. In addition, considering the cost-effectiveness of the biomass-based adsorbents as compared to commercial adsorbents, significant growth in demand is predicted for their use in the water and wastewater treatment market.