Removal of ammonium and nitrate ions from mine effluents by membrane technology

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1994 · Separation Science and Technology; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/01496399408002157· OSTI ID:7302657

Awadalla, F T; Striez, C; Lamb, K ^[1]

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1. Inst. for Environmental Chemistry, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

Ammonium and nitrate ions could be removed from synthetic and actual mine effluents by using nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. RO membranes were found more effective in removing these ions (>99% for NH[sub 4][sup +] and about 97% for NO[sup [minus]][sub 3]) than NF membranes (about 66% for NH[sup +][sub 4] and about 43% for NO[sup [minus]][sub 3]). Removal of ammonia from synthetic solutions containing only ammonia and water by both NF and RO membranes was found to be very low (10-30%), indicating that ammonia in mining effluents existed not as free ammonia but as ammonium salt complexes. Ammonia separation by membranes assures the production of quality water suitable for recycling in mining operations since the other metal ions and anions, such as Ca and SO[sub 4], were also retained in the concentrate. It may be feasible to further process the concentrated product containing appreciable amounts of nitrate and sulfur ions to produce ammonium compounds as fertilizer. During the test, no operating problems were observed such as fouling or scaling. The membrane performance was not affected at the end of the test as proved by NaCl separation before and after the ammonia run. 18 refs., 3 figs., 6 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 7302657
• Journal Information: Separation Science and Technology; (United States), Vol. 29:4; ISSN 0149-6395
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
42 ENGINEERING
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
MEMBRANE TRANSPORT
REMOVAL
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
LIQUID WASTES
PROCESSING
MEMBRANES
FOULING
PERFORMANCE
PERMEABILITY
SCALING
MINES
WASTE PROCESSING
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
WATER
RECYCLING
AMMONIUM COMPLEXES
AMMONIUM SULFATES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FERTILIZERS
IRON SULFATES
OSMOSIS
SODIUM CHLORIDES
ULTRAFILTRATION
WATER QUALITY
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
COMPLEXES
DATA
DIFFUSION
DISPERSIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
FILTRATION
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
IRON COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
MIXTURES
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SOLUTIONS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
400105* - Separation Procedures
320305 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Industrial Waste Management
540320 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
422000 - Engineering- Mining & Underground Engineering- (1980-)