MSU research leads to new method of protecting water affected by mining

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MSU research leads to new method of protecting water affected by mining

Mine research

Lisa Kirk examines a rock at a Teck Resources mine site in Canada's Elk River Valley in 2011. 

BOZEMAN — When Lisa Kirk came to Montana State University for graduate school she was seeking answers to something that had puzzled her as a geochemist in Idaho.

While helping to develop methods of treating waste rock at phosphate mines, she had observed surprisingly low levels of selenium, a naturally occurring element that can become concentrated in mine runoff, harming livestock, fish and other organisms. She couldn't explain the phenomenon in terms of traditional chemistry. But, probing the question further, she found that microbes — something outside the normal scope of geochemistry — were probably playing a role.

"I got so excited that I decided to quit my job and go back to school to study it," said Kirk, who earned her doctorate in ecology and environmental sciences from MSU in 2014.

Fast forward to today, and the research she conducted at MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering is being applied in the form of a technology called saturated rock fill, or SRF, to reduce selenium at Teck Resources Limited’s steelmaking coal mines near British Columbia's Elk River, which flows into Lake Koocanusa near the Montana border. In a large pit of waste rock allowed to fill with groundwater, naturally occurring bacteria convert the selenium and another contaminant, nitrate, into harmless forms.

"Saturated rock fill is very effective and very fast at treating water," said Kirk, now an affiliate professor in MSU's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the principal biogeochemist at the Bozeman-based consulting firm she founded, Enviromin, which employs 10 MSU graduates from microbiology, engineering and other fields. "We just need to create the conditions that allow the microbes to succeed."

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    My prayer is to study carefully to understand the huge potential of the process
    I am looking for a financial or associate partner
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    1. Completely ecological industrial platform without any gas emittion or other polluting materials. 
    2. Burning thousands of tonnes of household waste annually per furnace (without needing selection). 
    3. Alternative fuel production at competitive prices and in massive amounts. 
    4. Waste processing and industrial pollution neutralising of any kind (even burning gasses) 
    5. The re-launching and sustaining of the chemical industry on an ecological basis. 
    Redoxint project introduces a series of novelties at conception, which requires design and simulation, in order to have a comprehensive view on technology
    Pollution appears when the technological progress reaches a level where it starts having a major impact upon the environment and the by-products management is not prioritised because of economic reasons. Massive gas emission with greenhouse effect are the result of a faulty attitude towards technology. In the same category one should include household and industrial waste management.

    The level of pollution is so high that a change in attitude is needed towards the environment.

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    One of the most dangerous products for the environment are carbides. The release of carbon monoxide in the air is a big financial and energy related issue. The first patent that the Redoxing project is based upon describes a procedure and a processing equipment that processes carbides in a Tunnel Furnace.

    The Tunnel Furnace used as an electrochemical reactor provides result gases at reasonable temperatures for them to be used as primary raw material for synthesis processing equipments (Fischer-Tropsch, Urea).

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    Processing flue gases from the furnace tunnel in Solvay plant for seawater desalination offers the cheapest drinking water
    EXPENSES production are minimal, considering that all reagents are byproducts of peripheral tunnel furnace installations
    Such production's expense are transferred acetylene's expense with the raw materials and energy for desalination are theoretically zero
    Redoxint process used for seawater desalination has the lowest production cost and quantity of drinking water most between the previous process
    Redoxint process offers solutions for two fundamental requirements in desalination, low price, and the maximum quantities of desalinated water
    If there is already functional Solvay plant, construction furnace and peripheral installations are very easy to make

    In the case of chemical industry, one can imagine and adapt massive equipments for sea water desalinisation, massive construction material production (like concrete), and all the platforms that can be described as eco-friendly and with a good waste management. In this way, the Redoxint project makes neutralising and reusing of massive gas exhaust from a concrete plant for example, possible.
    Person of contact: 
    ing.Pardi Zoltan 
    Organization: 
    REDOXINT Address: 
    Alesd-Bihor RomaniaTel. 0723594373, email 
    redoxint@yahoo.com 
    http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=186378912&trk=hb_tab_pro_top
    https://www.maven.co/maven/425268/profile
    https://www.innocentive.com/ar/workspace/challengeDetail?challenge=9933337 


    I am looking forward to hearing from you! 
    Sincerely yours,
    Zoltan Pardi