Estuary sediment treatment for reducing sulfate in acid mine water

Abstract

Acid mine water causes environmental problems due to its high acidity caused by its high sulfate content which can disturb the life of organisms. This problem can be resolved by utilizing sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) abundantly found in sediments. The purpose of this research is to study the use of estuary sediments as a source of SRB inoculums to reduce sulfate in acid mine water. The bioremediation treatment of acid mine water is carried out in a column bioreactor, with treatment T1 comprising of sediment and compost, and then comparing it to treatments T2 of sediment, T3 of compost, and T4 as the control treatment of only acid mine water. Results show that treatment T1 was able to reduce sulfate concentrations by 78%, compared to T2 by 56%, T3 by 21% and T4 by 5%. The reduction of sulfate was followed by increases in pH where T1 reached a pH value of 7.1, compared to treatments T2 and T3 which had pH values less than 5.5, whereas treatment T4 had a pH of 2.2. The reduced sulfate and increased pH was also followed by an increase of SRB growth, especially in T1. Estuary sediments as a source of SRB inoculums can be used in the bioremediation of acid mine water by adding compost to maximize the process of sulfate reduction and pH increase.

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