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

在过去的十年中，硒（Se）的存在，由于采矿作业已成为一个日益严重的质量和健康问题，在世界各地的沃茨。尽管硒具有营养益处，但其过量会对人类，个别植物和动物以及生物种群和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，采矿废物流需要在释放到环境中之前进行处理。目前的研究项目旨在利用农业剩余物为基础的材料（例如，小麦和油菜秸秆）作为更昂贵的商业吸附剂（例如，树脂和活性炭）用于除去Se。加拿大的农业废弃物可以提供丰富的资源来开发廉价的吸附剂，并通过增加农业废弃物的价值来造福农业经济。研究这些生物质吸附剂的应用将潜在地降低处理采矿废水中硒和其他金属（类）的成本。在本研究中，我们将开发生物质吸附剂，其将通过吸附选择性地去除采矿废水中的硒。选择性吸附可以缩短吸附平衡时间，延长连续操作时间，从而以较低的成本获得高效的工艺。这些低成本吸附剂也可能适用于加拿大其他地区的采矿或其他行业，甚至适用于面临高浓度硒的发展中国家。将通过该项目开发的专门知识和技术有可能适用于开发其他金属（类）或新兴污染物的生物质吸附剂。此外，考虑到与商业吸附剂相比生物质基吸附剂的成本效益，预计其在水和废水处理市场中的使用需求将显着增长。

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.