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Acid mine drainage (AMD) results from sulfuric acid produced by the oxidation of pyrite, and contains large amounts of toxic elements. In the neutralization of AMD, iron and aluminum hydroxides are the major precipitates and those two can be separated with two-phase neutralization. In this study, removal of toxic elements by the two phases of neutralization was investigated using an AMD collected from the abandoned antimony mine in Gachang, Taegu. Contents of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in the AMD were higher than the criteria of river water quality or permissible waste water discharge. In the first phase, the AMD was neutralized to several % (25, 50, 75, 100, and 125) of Fe(OH), equivalence point with solid Ca(OH)₂. In the second phase, the supernatant of the first phase neutralization was titrated to pH 7.5. After neutralization of the AMD to 100% of the Fe(OH), equivalence point, most of Fe and Pb were removed but levels of As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Mn, and Zn were not reduced in the supernatant solution. In the second phase neutralization, levels of those toxic elements in the supernatants dropped below the wastewater discharge or river water quality criteria. This result suggests that the precipitate formed in the first phase of the neutralization process may be disposed without any special cares. Thus the two-phase neutralization scheme can reduce the cost of disposing precipitates containing toxic metals in comparison with the monophase neutralization scheme.
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