Valorization of coal mine effluents — Challenges and economic opportunities

Coal-mine effluent treatment has the potential to both reduce environmental impact of and provide economic opportunities by recovering valuable minerals clean water. In this study, we modeled a novel process, which includes nanofiltration (NF), two-step crystallization, reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis (ED), multi-effect distillation (MED), NaCl crystallizer, performed techno-economic analysis its full-scale implementation, using circular economy approach. We estimated thermal electrical energy consumption be 745.5 kWhth/tonNaCl 565.1 kWhel/tonNaCl (or 13.6 kWhth 10.3 kWhel per m3 feed effluent), respectively. The levelized cost salt that accounts for revenue from plant's co-products (Mg(OH)2, CaSO4 and, pure water) was 203 USD/tonNaCl. viability chain can improved renewable electricity sources, reducing total expenditure on NF RO, integrating alternate technologies into plant.