• Assessment on Zn Treatment Characteristics of Alum Sludge-based Adsorbent

  • Dae-Gyu Im1, Duk-Min Kim2*, Hye-Lim Kwon2, Ki-Rim Lee2, Joon-Hak Lee3, and Seong-Taek Yun1

  • 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
    2Department of New Energy and Mining Engineering, Sangji University, Wonju 26339, Republic of Korea
    3Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation (KOMIR), Wonju 26464, Republic of Korea

  • 알럼 슬러지 기반 흡착제의 Zn 처리 특성 평가

  • 임대규1ㆍ김덕민2*ㆍ권혜림2ㆍ이기림2ㆍ이준학3ㆍ윤성택1

  • 1고려대학교 지구환경과학과
    2상지대학교 신에너지·자원공학과
    3한국광해광업공단

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Zinc present in mine drainage, wastewater, and contaminated groundwater is difficult to treat using conventional passive treatment technologies. This study evaluated an alum sludge-based adsorbent through column and batch experiments, including adsorption kinetics, isotherms, and pH edge analysis. Over 341 days, the column experiment reduced Zn concentrations (4.6 – 6.4 mg/L) to below 1 mg/L within a 4-hour residence time, meeting effluent standards. The breakthrough point was observed at approximately 1,432 bed volumes, corresponding to 9 months of operation. The adsorbent increased pH, likely due to the adsorption of H+ ions, and facilitated the precipitation of Zn as hydroxides on its surface. Even if the surface precipitation effect was excluded, the maximum adsorption capacity was calculated to be 5.5 mg/g. Therefore, this adsorbent, recycled from alum sludge, is expected to efficiently treat Zn in adsorption reactors and permeable reactive barriers.


Keywords: Zinc removal, Adsorption kinetics, Breakthrough point, pH adsorption edge, Surface precipitation

This Article

  • 2025; 30(1): 20-29

    Published on Feb 28, 2025

  • 10.7857/JSGE.2025.30.1.020
  • Received on Jan 5, 2025
  • Revised on Jan 12, 2025
  • Accepted on Jan 31, 2025

Correspondence to

  • Duk-Min Kim

  • Department of New Energy and Mining Engineering, Sangji University, Wonju 26339, Republic of Korea

  • E-mail: kdukmin8@sangji.ac.kr