Researchers at the IIT Guwahati have created a new technique to reduce Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) in the coal mines of northeast India, and they have asserted that it is the first study to demonstrate bioremediation.
IIT Guwahati’s research method turns out to be an effective strategy
Acid Mine Drainage is the term used in the research, which was published in the prestigious Chemical Engineering Journal, to describe the acidic wastewater produced from coal mines (or other polymetallic mines), which contains significant levels of sulphate, iron, and several harmful heavy metals.
In addition to resolving the long-term operational sustainability concerns experienced in Constructed Wetlands (CW) receiving AMD, officials claim that the IIT Guwahati research offers an effective sustainable treatment technique to mitigate AMD contamination.
Additionally, a molecular mechanism has been created to comprehend how the several fundamental activities that co-occur in CW function.
The researchers looked at how AMD discharge varied by season in the northeastern coalfields (monsoon, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon) (NEC). They carried out a laboratory-scale investigation, the results of which showed their potential for field-scale applications for direct mine drainage at the NEC and offered a practical sustainable remedy for AMD pollution mitigation.
Saswati Chakraborty, Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati, said, “The preliminary findings from this research propose an effective strategy to manage the extremely acidic AMD from the NEC, which remains to be a challenging source of water pollution and environmental contamination due to mining activity in this region.”
According to Shweta Singh, a research scholar at IIT Guwahati, “The generation of AMD is a perpetual environmental concern from the NEC. To address this concern, we investigated the potential bioremediation approach using nature-based technology – CWs and obtained some very promising results that can then be implemented at field-scale applications by coal mining industries.”
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