• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.25-36
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• 2010

Tertiary unconsolidated mudstones spread throughout the eastern coast area. The demand for high quality filling materials in these areas is increasing due to harbors and large-scale residential land development. Rock produced in-situ or near site has been used as road subbase construction or reclamation materials for economical reason, but it is hard to decide appropriateness of quality specification because of its characteristics. The test results showed that unconsolidated rocks are diversely considered according to a different method of the applied geotechnical investigation. Therefore, the site of tertiary unconsolidated mudstones, the classification of rock and evaluation of rock properties that must be evaluated by objective criteria and apply a different set of criteria are needed. In addition, the environmental impact must be considered due to acid mine drainage.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.237-245
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• 2005

The batch tests were performed to evaluate the applicability of the permeable reactive barrier (PRB) to in-situ treatment of groundwater with high concentration of heavy metals. The lead\chates used in this study were collected from waste rock dump of the Imgy mine, and have a low pH and high metal concentration. The acidity loading was 65kg as $CaCO_3/day$, metal loading of Fe+Al+Mn was 11.6kg/day. This type of water could be treated with biological-mediated sulfate reduction using the organic carbon mixture as a reactive media. The batch tests were carried out with five mixtures that were composed with different mixing ratios of mushroom compost, pine-tree bark, and limestone cheep. Results indicated that the PRB could reduce the acidity loading $CaCO_3/day$ to 12.3kg and reduce the metal loading to 3.3kg/day. Considering about the low pH and high metal loading, the contaminated water may be ameliorated by passing it through the buffering PRB composed with inorganic carbonate materials and then through the PRB composed with the organic carbon mixture which can induce sulfate reduction.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 2012

The $AsO_4$ ion in acid mine drainage has been known to substitute for $SO_4$ in schwertmannite and prevent schwertmannite from being converted to goethite. There have been studies on the heavy metal sorption on schwertmannite, but no experimental results have been reported on the characteristics of heavy metal sorption on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. In this study, we conducted sorption experiments of Cu, Pb, and Zn on the $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite at pH 4 and 6 in the solution of 3, 10, 30, and 100 mg/L concentrations. For all heavy metals, the sorbed heavy metals significantly increase at pH 6 compared with at pH 4. At both pH 4 and 6, Pb shows the highest sorption capacity and those of Cu and Zn are similar. With increasing time, the sorbed heavy meal contents increase too. However, in the case of Zn, the most sorptions occur at the initial stage and no significant increase is observed with time. Among the concentration ranges in which we conducted the experiment, the increasing trend is clear in high concentrated solutions such as 100 mg/L. We applied several sorption kinetic model and it shows that the diffusion process may be the most important factor controlling the sorption kinetics of Cu, Pb, and Zn on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. Considering the previous results that pure schwertmannite has similar sorption capacity for all three heavy metals at pH 6 and has higher sorption capacity for Cu and Pb than Zn at pH 4, our experiments indicates that substitution of $AsO_4$ for $SO_4$ on schwertmannite changes surface and sorption characteristics of schwertmannite. It also shows that $AsO_4$ contributes not only to the stability of schwertmannite, but also to the mobility of heavy metals in acid mine drainage.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.68-76
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• 2002

In this study, we have investigated the geochemical behavior and fate of heavy metals in acid rock drainage (ARD). The ARD was collected from the area of the former Dongrae pyrophyllite mine. The Dongrae Creek waters were strongly acidic (pH : 2.3~4.2) and contained high concentrations of $SO_4$, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Cd, due to the influence of ARD generated from weathering of pyrite-rich pyrophyllite ores. However, the water quality gradually improved as the water flows downstream. In view of the change of mole fractions of dissolved Fe, Al and Mn, the generated ARD was initially both Fe- and AA-ich but progressively evolved to more Al-rich toward the confluence with the uncontaminated Suyoung River. As the AR3 (pH 2.3) mixed with the uncontaminated waters (pH 6.5), the pH increased up to 4.2, which caused precipitation of $SO_4$-rich Fe hydroxysulfate as a red-colored, massive ferricrete precipitate throughout the Dongrae Creek. Accompanying the precipitation of ferricrete, the Dongrae Creek water progressively changed to more Al-rich toward downstream sites. At the mouth of the Dongrae Creek, it (pH 3.4) mixed with the Suyoung River (pH 6.9), where pH increased to 5.7, causing precipitation of Al hydroxysulfate (white precipitates). Neutralization of the ARD-contaminated waters in the laboratory caused the successive formation of Fe precipitates at pH<3.5 and Al precipitates at higher pH (4~6). Manganese compounds were precipitated at pH>6. The removal of trace metals was dependent on the precipitation of these compounds, which acted as sorbents. The pHs for 50% sorption ($pH_{50}$) in Fe-rich and Al-rich waters were respectively 3.2 and 4.5 for Pb, 4.5 and 5.8 for Cu, 5.2 and 7.4 for Cd, and 5.8 and 7.0 for Zn. This indicates that the trace metals were sorbed preferentially with increasing pH in the general order of Pb, Cu, Cd, and Zn and that the sorption of trace metals in Al-rich water occurred at higher pH than those in Fe-rich water. The results of this study demonstrated that the partitioning of trace metals in ARD is not only a function of pH, but also depends on the chemical composition of the water.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.95-108
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• 2015

Nano-sized iron colloids are formed as acid mine drainage is exposed to surface environments and is introduced into surrounding water bodies. These iron nanomaterials invoke aesthetic contamination as well as adverse effects on aqueous ecosystems. In order to control them, the characteristics of their behaviour should be understood first, but the cumulative research outputs up to now are much less than the expected. Using zero-valent iron (ZVI) and magnetite, this study aims to investigate the behaviour of iron nanomaterials according to the change in the composition and pH of background electrolyte and the concentration of natural organic matter (NOM). The size and surface zeta potential of iron nanomaterials were measured using dynamic light scattering. Characteristic behaviour, such as aggregation and dispersion was compared each other based on the DLVO (Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, and Overbeek) theory. Whereas iron nanomaterials showed a strong tendency of aggregation at the pH near point of zero charge (PZC) due to electrostatic attraction between particles, their dispersions became dominant at the pH which was higher or lower than PZC. In addition, the behaviour of iron nanomaterials was likely to be more significantly influenced by cations than anions in the electrolyte solutions. Particularly, it was observed that divalent cation influenced more effectively than monovalent cation in electrostatic attraction and repulsion between particles. It was also confirmed that the NOM enhanced the dispersion nanomaterials with increasing the negative charge of nanomaterials by coating on their surface. Under identical conditions, ZVI aggregated more easily than magnetite, and which would be attributed to the lower stability and larger reactivity of ZVI.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.19-28
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• 2009

The acid mine drainage (AMD) and landfill leachates released into the subsurface environment can result in serious environmental problems like soil and groundwater contamination. The AMD and the leachates of landfill were known to contain many heavy metals. In this study, the author assessed the reactivity and ability of the FeS coated-ALC for the removal of contaminants (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn, Al) in AMD and leachates in landfill. The synthetic nano-FeS and Autoclaved Lightweight Concrete (ALC) were used as reactive materials in the permeable reactive barriers(PRBs). The result of batch test indicated that synthetic nano-FeS can remove 99% of heavy metals for the 1hr of reaction time except for As and Ni(about 90%). However, the 80% of As and Ni was removed in column 1(FeS coated-ALC). The column 2(Ore FeS) removed more than 99% of heavy metals. The pH of the column 1 was increased from 3.51 to 6.39~6.50, and the pH with column 2 was increased from 3.51 to 9.20. As the result of this study, the author can surmise that the synthetic nano-FeS coated ALC will use as a very good reactive material of the PRBs to treat the contaminated groundwater with AMD and leachate of landfill.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.107-115
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• 2023

Cobalt can be released into the natural environment as industrial waste from the alloying industry and as acid mine drainage, and it is also a radionuclide (⁶⁰Co) that constitutes high-level radioactive waste. Smectite is a mineral that can be useful for adsorption and isolation of this element. In this study, Cheto-type montmorillonite (Cheto-MM), which is the source clays of The Clay Mineral Society (CMS) and already well-characterized, was used. The effect of the adsorption site affected by the presence of interlayer water on the adsorption of cobalt before and after dehydration by heating was evaluated and the adsorption mechanism of cobalt on Cheto-MM was studied by applying adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm models. The results showed that the adsorption characteristics changed with dehydration and subsequent shrinkage, and cobalt was found to be adsorbed at the edge of Cheto-MM for about 38% and adsorbed at the interlayer site for about 62%, suggesting that the cobalt adsorption of Cheto-MM is significantly influenced by the interlayer. By applying the adsorption kinetic models, the cobalt adsorption kinetics of Cheto-MM is explained by a pseudo-second-order model, and the concentration-dependent adsorption was best described by the Langmuir isotherm adsorption model. This study provides basic knowledge on the adsorption characteristic of cobalt on montmorillonite with different adsorption sites and is expected to be useful in predicting the adsorption behavior of smectite in high-level radioactive waste disposal sites in the future.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2021

The SO₄ in the jarosite structure can be substituted by other oxyanions, and therefore, the transition of jarosite to goethite plays a very important role in controlling the behavior of oxyanions. In this study, the phase change according to the species of the oxyanion in jarosite and the related behavior of the oxyanion was studied by mineralogical and geochemical methods when jarosite, which is coprecipitated with various oxynions, undergoes a phase change by a reductive dissolution. Jarosite substituted by five oxyanions by 5 mol% was used in this study. The mineral phase change induced by reductive dissolution using ammonium oxalate was investigated, and the order of phase transition rate of jarosite to goethite was MoO₄-jarosite ≥ SeO₄-jarosite ≥ CrO₄-jarosite > pure jarosite > SeO₃-jarosite > AsO₄-jarosite, showing that the transition rates vary depending on the substituted oxyanion. The resultant concentration of the leached Fe was slightly different depending on the type of oxyanion and time but did not show a noticeable difference. The concentration of each oxyanion leached according to the change of the mineral phase showed that the order of concentration of oxyanions was Mo > Se(SeO₃) > As > Se(SeO₄) > Cr in general, and showed a slight increase with time. This trend was related to the species of oxyanions rather than mineral phase change. The results of this study showed that the phase transition of jarosite to goethite was affected by the species of oxyanions, but this tendency did not affect the concentrations leached oxyanions.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2023

Ferrihydrite is an iron oxide mineral that is easily found in the natural environment, including acid mine drainage, and has a low crystallinity and high specific surface area, resulting in high reactivity with other ions, and can remove environmentally hazardous substances. However, because ferrihydrite is a metastable mineral, there is a possibility of releasing adsorbed ions by phase transformation to other minerals having low surface area and high crystallinity. In this study, the adsorption characteristics of arsenate, chromate, and selenate on ferrihydrite and the oxyanion removal efficiency of ferrihydrite were studied considering mineral phase transformation. At both pH 4 and 8, the adsorption of oxyanions used in the study were in good agreement with both Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models except for selenate at pH 8. Due to the difference in surface charge according to pH, at pH 4 a higher amount of ions were adsorbed than at pH 8. The adsorption amount were in the order of arsenate, chromate, and selenate. These different adsorption models and adsorption amounts were due to different adsorption mechanisms for each oxyanions on the surface of ferrihydrite. These adsorption characteristics were closely related to changes in the mineral phase. At pH 4, a phase transformation to goethite or hematite was observed, but only a phase transformation to hematite was observed at pH 8. Among the oxyanion species on ferrihydrite, arsenate showed the highest adsorption capacity and hardly caused phase transformation during the experimental period after adsorption. Contrary to this, chromate and selenate showed faster mineral phase transformation than arsenate, and selenate had the lowest retardation effect among the three oxyanions. Ferrihydrite can effectively remove arsenate due to its high adsorption capacity and low phase transformation rate. However, the removal efficiency for other two oxyanions were low by the low adsorption amount and additional mineral phase transformation. For chromate, the efficient removal is expected only at low concentrations in low pH environments.