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

加拿大拥有丰富的煤炭储量。一些煤矿含有高浓度的氧化钙，以方解石（CaCO3）和其他碳酸盐的形式存在。当水流过含有残余煤和覆盖层的混合物的废石堆时，方解石被溶解并被带到下游。方解石的过量降水会堆积河床，甚至改变采矿作业区的相关河岸植被、河岸区和河道形态，这可能会降低水生生物栖息地的质量。方解石结垢通常发生在煤矿下游一定距离处。因此，方解石沉淀和结垢对于煤矿工业是非常重要且具有挑战性的问题。 为了防止和管理方解石沉淀和结核破碎，对方解石晶体的成核、生长和沉淀过程以及添加抑制剂的方解石结核破碎过程的基本理解是非常重要的。在此，我们建议调查的成核，生长，沉淀和方解石晶体的相互作用机制与选定的抑制剂，以及吸附和抑制剂与方解石晶体的相互作用，这是密切相关的方解石的建设和防垢。预计我们的研究结果将对提高对方解石沉淀和结核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，以避免煤炭运营固有的相关技术和环境问题。本研究的成果不仅可以提高煤炭开采业的经营绩效，而且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.