Remediation of acid mine drainage using metallurgical slags

• Basic Oxygen Slag (BOF) slag has better capacity for treating AMD than Stainless Steel (SS) slag.
• BOF slag removed 99.7% of iron and 75% of sulfate.
• Replacement depends on extent of treatment, residence time and quantity of slag.

In this study basic oxygen and stainless steel slag were both assessed for potential use in treating acid mine drainage. The stainless steel slag was able to effect some pH change but was found to not be suitable. Basic oxygen slag was found to have a significant potential as a remediating agent. For a model acid mine water with a pH of 2.5, sulfate concentration of 5000 mg/L and iron concentration of 1000 mg/L, the slag was able to increase pH to 12.1, reduce the soluble iron by 99.7% and reduce sulfate by 75% in batch experiments. In these batch reactors most reaction was completed within 30 min indicating that this is a rapid process. Additional experiments were conducted with continuous flow reactors to assess the maximum treatment capacity of the slag. These experiments indicated that slag replacement strategies are wholly dependent on the strength of the acid mine drainage, the required residence time and the specified residual concentrations of iron or sulfate and the pH. The data indicate that in particular, basic oxygen furnace slag has significant potential as a replacement reagent for lime in treating acid mine drainage.