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An Aspen Model for the Treatment of Acid
Mine Water Although
numerous methods exist to treat acid mine water they all have inherent disadvantages. A
means of treating acid mine drainage is by forming a precipitate known as ettringite.
Ettringite is a low solubility calcium hydrosulphoaluminate that is stable between pH
values of 11.4 and 12.4. Ettringite is made up of calcium, sulphate, aluminium and a large
amount of water. Decomposition of ettringite takes place by dropping the pH to about 7. A
5 stage process is proposed to treat acid mine drainage of which the formation of
ettringite forms the cornerstone of this process. The process incorporates the formation
of more than one precipitate as well as the recycling of aluminium hydroxide when
ettringite is decomposed. The results obtained in this paper are as a result of modeling
this process. The modeling of this process was performed on a computer simulation package
known as Aspen |
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