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Published on: June 21, 2015
Stabilization of Uranium in Acid Ore Wastewater through Hydrothermal Mineralization-Induced Crystallization
Lingjun Kong1,2, Xingyu Long1, Zijing Yu1
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Abstract:
Uranium [U(VI)] mining activity resulted in the discharge of uranium containing acid wastewater. It is necessary for immobilizing the uranium from wastewater to avoid its environmental pollution. In this work, a novel hydrothermal mineralization strategy is proposed for uranium stabilization. Three reaction systems such as Mg3(PO4)2 + UO22+, Mg2+ + PO43- + UO22+, and Mg2+ + PO43- + Mg3(PO4)2 + UO22+ were designed to investigate the uranium mineralization and stabilization performance. The consumed molar quantities of magnesium and phosphate were calculated to understand the mineralization mechanisms. The molar ratios of Mg/U and P/U in the experimental results were in agreement with those of thermodynamic calculation in the presence of dissolved Mg2+ and PO43- under the hydrothermal process. The calculated saturated index indicated the facile crystallization of uranium into the saleeite and chernikovite through hydrothermal mineralization at the pH value of 5 and 473 K. Crystallization into saleeite and chernikovite contributed to uranium stabilization, resulting in the negligible leaching rate of 5% due to the high crystallinity of 97.23%. Thus, hydrothermal mineralization of uranium crystallization into saleeite and chernikovite was promising for uranium stabilization with long-term stability.
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