Acoustic waste water clarification practices

The article covers the problems of reagent-free clarification of circulating and waste waters of enterprises with their production sites located in valleys of spawning rivers in the environmentally-sensitive northern territories. It is shown that horizontal sumps, widely used at mining enterprises due to their low construction and operation costs, fail to ensure the production and environmental indicators required in the current conditions. The article analyses the results of 20 years of application in the Russian Federation and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region of the complex acoustic method (CAM), based on the mechanisms of coagulation of fine particles, forced sedimentation of initial and coagulated particles, as well as sludge thickening and dewatering. The advantages and limitations are shown for the CAM method, developed by the author of the article and based on the principles of: complexity, with the use of the laws of linear and nonlinear acoustics; acoustic impact on the water system for the purpose of acoustic degassing of water; acoustic coagulation of fine suspended solids (and subsequent gravity sedimentation of the newly formed aggregates); acoustic (forced) sedimentation of the original and previously acoustically coagulated suspended solids; acoustic thickening of sludge in sumps and acoustic dewater ing of sludge at depositing sites with drainage systems; the cascade (boundary) nature of acoustic impacts on the water system in the main water catchers, sumps, etc. The specific behavior of processes under a complex acoustic impact ensures their high productivity and low power consumption values (unattainable by any other methods) and the required environmental safety in the special conditions of the Far North and the Far East.