@inproceedings{1608_31_Pulles, author={Pulles, W and Lodewijks, HM and Toerien, A and Muhlbauer, R and van Niekerk, JA and Richardt, A}, editor={Fourie, AB and Tibbett, M}, title={Passive treatment of acid mine drainage at Vryheid Coronation Colliery, South Africa}, booktitle={Mine Closure 2016: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Mine Closure}, date={2016}, publisher={Australian Centre for Geomechanics}, location={Perth}, pages={425-438}, abstract={A novel passive bio-neutralisation water treatment process has been applied to treat an acidic mine drainage decant emanating from a closed colliery in northern KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The process has been implemented to treat 200 m³/day of water and incorporates the following components: a 3.2 km pipeline from the decant point to the water treatment site, a molasses dosing station, a 1,000 m³ bio neutralisation reactor, three aeration cascades to oxidise sulphides, passive sulphide gas extraction to a bio filter to oxidise sulphide gas, three limestone reactors for pH polishing, and an aerobic wetland to remove residual nutrients. The bio-neutralisation technology is a strictly biological process utilising bacterial processes to treat an influent with a pH as low as 2.8 to remove the acidity, iron and aluminium. The plant has already been constructed and commissioning commenced in August 2015.}, keywords={passive treatment}, keywords={acid mine drainage}, keywords={coal mining}, doi={10.36487/ACG_rep/1608_31_Pulles}, url={https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/1608_31_Pulles/} }