Sulphate removal over barium-modified blast-furnace-slag geopolymer.

Blast-furnace slag and metakaolin were geopolymerised, modified with barium or treated with a combination of these methods in order to obtain an efficient SO4(2-) sorbent for mine water treatment. Of prepared materials, barium-modified blast-furnace slag geopolymer (Ba-BFS-GP) exhibited the highest SO4(2-) maximum sorption capacity (up to 119mgg(-1)) and it compared also favourably to materials reported in the literature. Therefore, Ba-BFS-GP was selected for further studies and the factors affecting to the sorption efficiency were assessed. Several isotherms were applied to describe the experimental results of Ba-BFS-GP and the Sips model showed the best fit. Kinetic studies showed that the sorption process follows the pseudo-second-order kinetics. In the dynamic removal experiments with columns, total SO4(2-) removal was observed initially when treating mine effluent. The novel modification method of geopolymer material proved to be technically suitable in achieving extremely low concentrations of SO4(2-) (<2mgL(-1)) in mine effluents.

Simultaneous removal of Ni(II), As(III), and Sb(III) from spiked mine effluent with metakaolin and blast-furnace-slag geopolymers.

The mining industry is a major contributor of various toxic metals and metalloids to the aquatic environment. Efficient and economical water treatment methods are therefore of paramount importance. The application of natural or low-cost sorbents has attracted a great deal of interest due to the simplicity of its process and its potential effectiveness. Geopolymers represent an emerging group of sorbents. In this study, blast-furnace-slag and metakaolin geopolymers and their raw materials were tested for simultaneous removal of Ni(II), As(III) and Sb(III) from spiked mine effluent. Blast-furnace-slag geopolymer proved to be the most efficient of the studied materials: the experimental maximum sorption capacities for Ni, As and, Sb were 3.74 mg/g, 0.52 mg/g, and 0.34 mg/g, respectively. Although the capacities were relatively low due to the difficult water matrix, 90-100% removal of Ni, As, and Sb was achieved when the dose of sorbent was increased appropriately. Removal kinetics fitted well with the pseudo-second-order model. Our results indicate that geopolymer technology could offer a simple and effective way to turn blast-furnace slag to an effective sorbent with a specific utilization prospect in the mining industry.