Automated Control of Sorptional Treatment of Mine Wastewater

Abstract

The treatment of mine wastewater is of great environmental importance. Treatment systems including sorption on activated carbon are widely used. The sorbents employed require periodic regeneration. That interrupts the wastewater flow. The solution is to use a battery of sorbent modules, which are regenerated in turn. Thus, the battery will always include a module that is being regenerated. The operating time of the sorbent modules without regeneration may be increased at no cost to treatment quality if the wastewater flow rate is decreased as the sorbent becomes saturated. However, this approach changes the overall productivity of the system. Accordingly, an automated system must be developed to monitor and regulate the distribution of the wastewater flow among the modules in the battery, taking account of the level of sorbent saturation in each one. The proposed automated system employs no less than five sorbent modules. The control algorithm ensures periodic shutdown of each of the modules for regeneration. The control system for each module adjusts the wastewater flow in accordance with its level of sorbent saturation.