Oil palm empty fruit bunch as the selected organic matter in developing the Swampy forest system for passive treatment of acid mine drainage

摘要

Coal mining in Indonesia commonly faces expensive and uncertain costs during the operational and mine closure stages, from the management of acid mine drainage (AMD). The most expensive method to actively raise the pH of this wastewater is the use ofchemical additives. An alternative method is passive treatment, which is acidity treatment with lower costs but limited efficacy. We present the development of passive treatment with Swampy Forest (SF) system as a new natural and sustainable method withlower costs, and greater environmental sustainability. The SF system consists of selecting organic matter and combining it with the planting of selected grass and tree species in the form of a forest constructed wetland. As a preliminary to the construction of the SF wetland, a batch reactor system was used to carry out experiments to find the best organic matter for passive treatment of AMD. Oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) were shown to increase the low pH of AMD, which generally has the pH < 4, tobe pH between 6 to 9, thus achieving the threshold parameter to comply with applicable regulations for managing mine waste water.