Gravity-Fed Column Configuration for Acid Mine Drainage Experiment

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a gravity feed column setup and to set the flow parameters based on experimentally measured flow rates and pressure drops. Prior to the present study the authors used a column setup in which acid mine drainage was pumped through pervious concrete filled columns, using electrical peristaltic fish pond pumps. The gravity feed setup in the present study was designed to overcome the need to rely on electrical power supply. The study describes the design setup of four gravity columns. The design requirements comprised determination of appropriate column sizes, pressure heads and hydraulic gradients required to produce a low flow rate of about 1 mL/min at outlets of the columns filled with pervious concrete media. Of special interest is the hydraulic gradient being responsible for continuous flow in each column. Following completion of the design setup , continuous flow rates of 0.60 to 0.80 mL/min were attained with a Reynolds number of about 4.0 in the columns filled with pervious concrete. Further research is in progress involving employment of the gravity-feed system for acid mine drainage treatment investigations.

Permeable Concrete Barriers to Control Water Pollution: A Review

“…Permeable concrete has been investigated for its potential use in the construction of permeable reactive barriers for ground water remediation [30,31,154,156,[173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183]. In particular, these research efforts were directed toward the assessment of the potential use of these materials for the remediation of acidic contaminated groundwater, in particular contamination from acid mine drainage, in which the high buffering capacity of these materials will sustain its performance over long periods of time.…”

“…The reported mechanisms of pollutant removal were precipitation due to the alkalinity of the permeable reactive concrete media combined with physical and chemical sorption onto the hardened cement phases, the aggregates, and the SCM [30,173,176,178,179,181].…”

“…Current research efforts in this field are focused at the lab-scale testing and mainly focus on conducting static experiments, with limited research studying dynamic conditions [30,31,36,181]. There is a need to address the performance of these materials under more realistic conditions that address upscale practical applications of these materials.…”