Study results of the choice of barium salts reagents for wastewater treatment from sulfates

Abstract The research on the removal of sulfates from mine wastewater is presented in the article. A new purification method has been proposed that allows removing a significant part of sulfates by precipitation in the form of barium sulfate. The present studies were devoted to the removal of sulfates from mine wastewater with a sulfate content of 1050 mg/l by introducing various doses of barium-containing reagents, namely barium chloride, hydroxide and barium carbonate. Among the listed reagents, the best results were obtained, using barium chloride and hydroxide. The use of barium chloride with a dose of 2700 mg/l and barium hydroxide with a dose of 3200 mg/l made it possible to reduce the concentration of sulfates below the maximum permissible (100 mg/l) when discharged into a reservoir for fishery purposes. A reliable in operation technological scheme for removing sulfates from highly concentrated mine wastewater has been developed, which makes it possible to reduce sulfates in the treated waste liquid discharged into the reservoir to 100 mg/l and below. In this case, the purification is carried out with separation of streams - in a smaller part (about 26% of the incoming); barium chloride is introduced, in the second - barium hydroxide. After that, the streams are mixed again, settled, sent to the calciner and to the post-treatment facilities and discharged into the reservoir. The resulting sludge is stored in special landfills or is processed to extract valuable components.