The Recovery of Acid Rock Drainage, Recovery and Conversion to Saleable Fertilizers and Agricultural Water

The webinar briefly discusses the causes and analyses of Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) and the effect of sodium to agriculture. Sodium is mostly ignored as a problem in ARD waters as it is not seriously toxic to humans but is a looming disaster for agriculture.  The discussion looks at some methods of recovery but especially at the KNeW ion exchange process which converts the dissolved solids to fertilizer and quality sodium chloride. These products then generate sufficient income to cover the cost of processing and in some cases will leave a profit resulting in the recovered water being affordable for agriculture – a unique operation.  Trailblazer Technologies (Pty) Ltd has also developed the first truly continuous counter-current ion exchange process which allows large water flows to be processed at low pressure drop which standard column ion exchange technology cannot handle economically.

The KNeW process is also suitable for the recovery of saline underground waters that prove difficult to process competitively and without having a waste brine problem.