Biological sulphate reduction of acid mine drainage using primary sewage sludge

摘要

Acid Mine Drainage [AMD) waters pose a significant environmental threat to the quality of surface and underground water resources. This paper describes a novel system for the biological sulphate reduction (BSR] of acid mine drainage using primary sewage sludge (PSS) as carbon source in an upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor. PSS is available as a by-product at municipal wastewater treatment plants and its co-disposal proposes an elegant solution to BSR. A laboratory-scale UASB reactor, operated at 35°C, was inoculated with sulphate reducing bacteria, and operated for over 250 days with a sulphate-rich feed of concentration 1800 mg/L. PSS was added to the feed as substrate source for BSR. A biomass recycle stream from the top to the bottom of the sludge bed was introduced to enhance sulphidogenic activity at the bottom of the reactor bed. In this study, the effects of various operational parameters were investigated.