Mine water – preliminary research for biological sulphate removal

Mine water from closed sites throughout the main Romanian mining areas represents a significant vector for water pollution. Those mine water, especially from non-ferrous mines have a high variability of chemical-physical characteristics (pH, conductivity, ORP, heavy metals, alkaline and alkaline earth ions, sulphate and chloride). There are significant challenges for the treatment of these types of water, including the removal of sulphate and alkaline-earth metals ions. For the sulphate removal, the biological reduction is one of the possible technical alternatives. This paper presents some results for a lab-scale trial for the evaluation of the potential of passive system for the biological sulphate reduction from mine waters.