Solidification performances of contaminants by red mud-based cementitious paste filling material and leaching behavior of contaminants in different pH and redox potential environments

Water Sci Technol. 2022 Feb;85(3):731-745. doi: 10.2166/wst.2022.004.

Abstract

Considering the urgent need for disposal of red mud and the comprehensive treatment of coal mined-out areas, this paper presented red mud-based cementitious paste filling material (RMFM) to achieve the purpose of green filling treatment. However, the solidification performance of alkaline RMFM for contaminants can be affected when in contact with acid goaf water in practice, which may in turn cause secondary pollution to the surroundings. The leaching tests of RMFM under different pH and redox potential (Eh) conditions were designed to investigate the effects of environmental elements on the solidification performance of RMFM, and primarily investigated the treatment effectiveness of RMFM on goaf water. The test results manifest that the acidic and oxidizing environments could damage the hydration products generated by alkali and sulfate activation, thus affecting the solidification performance, while the alkaline and reducing environments could effectively prevent the release of the contaminants by enhancing the degree of alkali activation and inhibiting oxidation acid forming process. In the possible exposure environment, RMFM could effectively stabilize its own pollutants without secondary pollution. In addition, the powder RMFM samples had significant removal effects on heavy metals, the values of Cu, Pb, and As removal efficiency all reached more than 96.15%.

MeSH terms

  • Coal
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Metals, Heavy* / analysis
  • Mining
  • Oxidation-Reduction

Substances

  • Coal
  • Metals, Heavy