Fractionation of critical metals from authentic acid mine drainage using a multi-bed immobilized amine sorbent setup: A field site study

Abstract

For the first time reported, a flow-through multi-fixed bed immobilized amine/silica sorbent strategy was employed to fractionate purified critical metals from authentic acid mine drainage (AMD). The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL) patented Multi-functional Sorbent Technology (MUST) sorbents were used to recover critical metals from AMD at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden (Pittsburgh, PA USA). By adjusting the AMD/sorbent ratio, we recovered >80 % of pure adsorbed Mn (by adsorbed metal weight) and >90 % pure adsorbed Al at lab-scale. Further optimizing the weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) enhanced the rate of adsorbed Al recovery by over five times, justifying a field site test. After treating >100 L of AMD at the field site, the optimized polyamine/epoxysilane/aminosilane sorbent recovered approximately 0.7 wt% adsorbed Al at >90 % purity. A tangible amount of purified aluminum hydroxide [Al(OH)3] and aluminum sulfate [Al2(SO4)3] solids were then recovered after eluting and precipitating the previously adsorbed metals.