RT Journal Article
T1 Life cycle assessment of management/valorisation practices for metal-sludge from treatment of acid mine drainage
A1 Moreno González, Raúl
A1 Macías Suárez, Francisco
A1 Meyer, Andreas
A1 Schneider, Petra
A1 Nieto Liñán, José Miguel
A1 Olías Álvarez, Manuel
A1 Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos
AB The treatment of acid mine drainage in sulphide mining generates large amounts of metal-rich sludge whose management suppose an environmental quandary worldwide. Although traditional practices have focused on safe disposal in landfills, more environmentally friendly solutions may be adopted. The environmental performance of these solutions can be evaluated using tools like Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) that allows the estimation of the cumulative environmental impacts resulting from all stages in the product life cycle. The main goal of this study is, for the first time, to perform a LCA on different management strategies (i.e., i), encapsulation and disposal in landfill; ii) metal recovery using a chemical scheme; iii) pellets manufacturing for phosphorus removal from wastewaters; and iv) brick fabrication) for the metal-rich sludge generated from an active treatment plant. The manufacturing of pelletized material exhibited the lowest impacts (−35 REQs) due mainly to the environmental benefits of wastewater treatment. Despite the undoubtedly economic interest of recovering metals from the sludge, this route exhibited the highest environmental impacts (38 REQs), especially in the categories of fossil depletion (20,943 kg oil eq), marine (64 kg 1,4-dB eq) and freshwater ecotoxicity (50 kg 1,4-dB eq) due to the use of toluene and trybutylphosphate (TBP). The manufacture of bricks could be also an alternative route by obtaining economic value while exhibiting low environmental impacts (0.32 REQs), mainly on marine and freshwater ecotoxicity (0.7 kg 1,4-dB eq). These impacts can be notably reduced if waste materials are used replacing clays or using renewable energies. The encapsulation of these wastes is also a suitable option with a low environmental impact (0.46 REQs), but slightly greater than the brick manufacturing and with no economic return.
PB Elsevier
SN 0195-9255
SN 1873-6432 (electrónico)
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22235
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22235
LA eng
NO Moreno-González, R., Macías, F., Meyer, A., Schneider, P., Nieto, J. M., Olías, M., & Cánovas, C. R. (2023). Life cycle assessment of management/valorisation practices for metal-sludge from treatment of acid mine drainage. In Environmental Impact Assessment Review (Vol. 99, p. 107038). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107038
NO This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economic andCompetitiveness through the projects CGL2016-78783-C2-1-R (SCYRE)and by H2020 European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EITRawMaterials) through the projects Modular recovery process servicesfor hydrometallurgy and water treatment (MORECOVERY). C.RC´anovas thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for thePostdoctoral Fellowship granted under application reference RYC2019-027949-I. F. Macias was funded by the R&D FEDER Andalucía2014–2020 call through the project RENOVAME (FEDER; UHU-1255729). The authors would also like to thank to Dr. Roland Hischier(Associate Editor) for its kindly handling and four anonymous reviewersfor their helpful comments and suggestions that improved the quality ofthe manuscript. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva/ CBUA
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026