Several procedures for extracting content from different waste materials types were investigated, with the aim of evaluating their environmental impact. The waste materials consisted of wastes from bauxite ore processing by means of the Bayer process (red mud, Ajka, Hungary), bauxite ore using the sintering process followed by the Bayer process (brown-red mud, Žiar nad Hronom, Banská Bystrica region, Slovakia) and sulphide ores (metal-rich post-flotation tailing, Lintich, Slovakia). The extraction procedures were carried out with the aim of isolating "mobilizable" fractions using 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the presented article, an electrocoagulation method using a steel cathode and a steel anode was used to obtain chromium from laboratory-prepared model solutions with known compositions. The study aimed to analyze the effect of solution conductivity, pH, and 100% efficiency of chromium removal from the solution, as well as the highest possible Cr/Fe ratio in the final solid product throughout the process of electrocoagulation. Different concentrations of chromium (VI) (100, 1000, and 2500 mg/L) and different pH values (4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, the matrix characterization (mineralogy, total and local chemical composition, and total organic (TOC) and inorganic carbon (TIC) contents) of different types of sediments from mining- and metallurgy-influenced areas and the assessment of the impact of the matrix on the association of potentially hazardous metals with the mineral phases of these samples, which affect their mobility in the environment, are presented. For these purposes, sediment samples with different origins and from different locations in the environment were analyzed. Anthropogenic sediments from metal-rich post-flotation tailings (Lintich, Slovakia) represent waste from ore processing, natural river sediments from the Hornád River (Košice, Slovakia) represent areas influenced predominantly by the metallurgical industry, and lake sediments from a water reservoir Ružín (inflow from the Hornád and Hnilec Rivers, Slovakia) represent the impact of the metallurgical and/or mining industries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work are presented results of the complex study of two significant solid environmental samples: gravitation dust sediments (industrial pollutants, potential source of risk elements input to soils) and soils (component of the environment, potential source of risk elements input to food web). The first phase of this study was focused on the study of the significant chemical properties (phase composition, content of organic and inorganic carbon) of the dust and soil samples. In the second phase, the fractionation analysis was used on the evaluation of the mobility of chosen risk elements (Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) in the studied samples.
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