Long-Term Solutions to Acid Producing Coal Mine Spoils Using Industrial Wastes

1236403（梁）。 在世界各地，采矿暴露了从未与大气接触的新鲜矿物表面，经常造成氧化污染。从历史上看，采矿业利用目标矿物和倾倒的材料被认为是无用的？垃圾堆？经常变成小山产生酸性物质。这些排放物在美国阿巴拉契亚地区通常表现为酸性矿井径流，自100多年前煤炭开采成为主要工业以来，这种径流已经变得普遍。这些酸性物质的排放不仅会对流域造成环境破坏，而且煤垃圾堆本身就是不毛之地，几乎没有任何用处，如游戏，森林或农业用地。这种遗留的采矿问题是一种破坏，并且在阿巴拉契亚地区具有最有害的环境影响之一，其中来自垃圾堆的金属化合物，包括三价铁和二价铁、铝和锰（硫酸盐和氯化物作为最常见的抗衡离子），从这些煤垃圾堆和/或废弃的煤矿中连续浸出，导致酸性矿井排水（AMD）。所产生的AMD通过降低土壤孔隙水和河流流量的pH值来恶化整个流域的水质。AMD不仅是美国阿巴拉契亚地区煤炭生产的一个重大环境问题，而且肯定会成为世界各地煤炭生产地区的一个重大和有害的环境问题，因为煤炭是最便宜的能源之一，为不断增长的世界人口提供动力。因此，有必要有一个经济合理和技术有效的长期方法来处理AMD问题。本研究项目使用基于工业生态学的方法来解决这一需求，将这些垃圾堆的表面材料与棕泥混合，棕泥是铝制造过程中的残留物。在本项目中，一个目标是确定这种基于工业生态的修复方法的寿命和持久性，因为许多以前的修复工作随着时间的推移而失败，因为最终会损失碱性物质，以中和通过铁氧化产生的不断进行的酸。使用这种综合方法来调查新的工业生态补救方法的长期有效性是至关重要的，因为这种新技术有可能大规模安装，与广泛安装主动处理系统相比，成本可能是最低的。因此，在流域尺度上，这种类型的技术可能会导致AMD修复策略的范式转变。

1236403 (Liang). Around the world, mining exposes fresh mineral surfaces that have never been in contact with the atmosphere and often creates oxidation enabled pollution. Historically, the mining industry has utilized the target mineral and dumped materials deemed not useful as ?refuse piles? that often became small mountains that produce acid discharges. These discharges are commonly manifested in the Appalachian region of the USA as acid mine runoff that has become prevalent since coal mining became a major industry over 100 years ago. Not only are these acid discharges environmentally damaging to watersheds, the coal refuse piles themselves are barren lands that are virtually useless, as game, forest, or agricultural lands. Such legacy mining issues are a blight and have one of the most detrimental environmental impacts in the Appalachian region where metal compounds from the refuse piles, including ferric and ferrous iron, aluminum, and manganese (sulfate and chloride as the most common counter-ions), are continuously leached from these coal refuse piles and/or abandoned coal mines causing the acid mine drainage (AMD). The produced AMD deteriorates water quality throughout a watershed by decreasing the pH in soil pore water and river flow. AMD has not only been a significant environmental problem in the coal production Appalachian regions in the US, but also will certainly become a significant and harmful environmental problem in the coal production regions around the world as coal is used as one of the most inexpensive forms of energy to power the ever increasing world population. Therefore, it is necessary to have an economically sound and technically effective long-lasting approach to deal with the AMD problem. This research project addresses this need using an industrial ecology based approach to mix the surface materials of these refuse piles with brown mud, a residual of Bauxite processing from aluminum manufacturing. In this project, an objective is to determine the longevity and permanence of this industrial ecology-based remediation approach, as many previous remediation efforts fail over time due to eventual loss of alkaline material to neutralize the ever ongoing acid production via iron oxidation. Using such a combined approach to investigate the long-term effectiveness of the new industrial ecology-based remediation approach is critically important because this new technology has the potential to be installed at a mass scale with costs that may be minimal in comparison to the widespread installation of active treatment systems. Therefore, at the watershed scale, this type of technology may lead to a paradigm shift in AMD remediation strategy.