Electrocoagulation in Mining: Removing Zinc & Lead

CASE STUDY

Heavy metal removal at mine sites

without pH adjustment
Non-chemical solution
Reduced sludge volume
Three successful field pilots
Treated water passed toxicity testing

Mining operations face difficult challenges meeting increasingly stringent

MINE SITE 1
discharge standards for heavy metals and toxicity. With this increasing
regulation comes a need for newer tools and treatment technologies. Parameter Units Influent Effluent % Reduction
WaterTectonics is deploying new and innovative solutions that improve Cadmium µg/L 2.1 0.5 74.5%
water quality and reduce sludge waste without added chemicals. Copper µg/L 22.4 1.7 92.6%
Lead µg/L 105 1.4 98.6%
LABORATORY TESTING
Zinc µg/L 531 69.7 86.9%
Starting in the
TSS mg/L ND (< 5) ND (< 5) NA
laboratory,
WaterTectonics pH s.u. 8.4 8.4 NA
developed a
treatment process
using WaveIonics MINE SITE 2
electrocoagulation
Parameter Units Influent Effluent % Reduction
(EC) to demonstrate
compliance with low metals limits and toxicity tests. The solution Cadmium µg/L 0.4 0.2 55.5%
developed did not require the pH adjustment step generally needed Copper µg/L 4.4 1.6 64.3%
to meet heavy metal discharge requirements. The neutral pH water Lead µg/L 27.0 0.4 98.2%
contained elevated levels of mostly dissolved cadmium, copper, lead and Zinc µg/L 130 14.1 89.1%
zinc. WaterTectonics also completed laboratory scale, on-site testing for
TSS mg/L ND < 5 ND < 5 NA
other mines showing compliance with discharge requirements.
pH s.u. 7.9 8.0 NA

PILOT TESTING
WaterTectonics conducted pilots at two different mine sites and one SMELTER SITE
former smelter site. The treatment process consisted of a 300 gpm EC
Parameter Units Influent Effluent % Reduction
system with solids settling and ultrafiltration. The system operated over
90 days at the three different sites. During that time, the system treated Antimony µg/L 19.3 2.4 87.6%
variable water streams and consistently met discharge requirements. Arsenic µg/L 61.4 1.0 98.4%

In addition to meeting the metal removal targets, toxicity testing was Cadmium µg/L 2,654 12.5 99.5%
conducted on the treated water. A chronic whole effluent toxicity test Copper µg/L 216 13.8 98.2%
was conducted using daphnia with daily samples collected over a five day Lead µg/L 39,932 37.2 99.9%
period. The treated water passed both the static renewal survival and
Zinc µg/L 10,472 35.7 99.7%
reproduction tests.
TSS mg/L 21.6 0.15 99.3%
WaterTectonics WaveIonics EC technology was the first technology pH s.u. 7.8 8.7* NA
tested at these sites that was able to meet the discharge requirements
and pass toxicity tests. *pH was adjusted using sodium hydroxide during treatment.