Characterization of Sludge Generated from Acid Mine Drainage Treatment Plants

One of the wastes generated from coal mining area is the voluminous sludge, laden of metals. This sludge comes as precipitate which is produced from acid mine drainage active treatment ponds and always been disposed to the landfill. Limestone is one of the typical pH neutralization agents which is often used to bind the metal content of acid mine drainage in active treatment and will be settled at the bottom of the settling ponds. The goal of this study is to determine the potential utilization of acid mine drainage sludge in order to reduce the environmental problem caused by sludge accumulation so that this could become a valuable material. In this study, physical and chemical characterization from the sludge in solid form was carried out by laboratory analysis using SEM-EDS to see surface morphology, X-Ray Diffraction for mineralogy analysis, the chemical composition was done by using X-Ray Fluorescence and also BET method to see the surface area of the sample. The results of the characterization have shown that acid mine drainage sludge was very promising to be utilized as adsorbent material for removing pollutant in wastewater and further research is needed for the application to the wastewater technology.