Geochemist’s Workbench Workshop

Using GWB to Model Mine Drainage Geochemistry and Treatment

Presenters

Brent Means | U.S. Office of Sur­face Min­ing
Tom Meuze­laar | Life Cycle Geo LLC

Course Description

This 8‑hour work­shop focuses on using Geochemist’s Work­bench (GWB) to mod­el and eval­u­ate mine drain­age geo­chem­istry and treat­ment. The work­shop starts by using GWB to illus­trate the chem­ic­al con­trols on key con­tam­in­ants in coal mine drain­age. Next, data­sets col­lec­ted from both mine dis­charges and act­ive and pass­ive treat­ment sys­tems in Pennsylvania are used to illus­trate the prac­tic­al use of the GSS, Act2, and React GWB mod­ules to per­form eval­u­ations and pre­dic­tions.

It is import­ant to note this work­shop will use data­sets from sev­er­al of the mining/treatment sites included in the multi-day post-con­fer­ence tour. While not required, attend­ing both events will provide a thor­ough under­stand­ing of the geo­chem­ic­al con­trols and strategies used in act­ive and pass­ive treat­ment sys­tems.

Learning Goals

The learn­ing goals of the work­shop are to: (1) Intro­duce attendees to the geo­chem­istry of coal mine drain­age treat­ment & (2) Provide prac­tic­al examples of how to use the GWB mod­el to eval­u­ate data­sets and devel­op pre­dic­tions.

GWB Modules and Mine Water Topics

  • GSS Mod­ule (the geochemist’s spread­sheet)
    • Import mine pool water qual­ity data­set from Excel
    • Man­age water qual­ity data­sets
    • Cal­cu­late sat­ur­a­tion index, chem­ic­al activ­ity, and oth­er chem­ic­al and phys­ic­al para­met­ers for data­sets
    • Select data and launch Act2 and React to pop­u­late the input
  • Act2 Mod­ule (sol­u­bil­ity & redox-pH dia­grams)
    • Cre­ate dia­grams to review iron, man­ganese, and car­bon­ate geo­chem­istry
    • Learn how spe­ci­ation affects sol­u­bil­ity
    • Plot mine pool WQ data on the dia­grams to identi­fy sol­u­bil­ity con­trols on iron and alka­lin­ity con­cen­tra­tions
    • Plot Biore­act­or efflu­ent data on dia­grams to mon­it­or per­form­ance and pre­dict car­bon replen­ish­ment
  • React Mod­ule (cal­cu­late spe­ci­ation in solu­tion, reac­tion pro­cesses)
    • Per­form reac­tion mod­el­ing to pre­dict efflu­ent alka­lin­ity from lime­stone-based pass­ive treat­ment sys­tems and hydrated lime treat­ment plants
    • Pre­dict chem­ic­al con­sump­tion of using NaOH and Ca(OH)2 to treat mine drain­age
    • Mod­el the kin­et­ics of decar­bon­a­tion for vari­ous aer­a­tion devices
    • Eval­u­ate the effect of decar­bon­a­tion on treat­ment costs and efflu­ent qual­ity
    • Mod­el the kin­et­ics of homo and het­ero­gen­ous iron oxid­a­tion to size a chem­ic­al react­or
    • Per­form a mix­ing mod­el to pre­dict the effect of treated efflu­ent on the receiv­ing stream

Who Should Attend?

Any­one with a strong interest in geo­chem­istry and treat­ment of mine drain­age. A back­ground in geo­chem­istry or exper­i­ence in mine water treat­ment is pre­ferred.  

What is Required?

Attendees must have a laptop with GWB loaded before attend­ing the work­shop. Attendees will be emailed instruc­tions on how to down­load and install the soft­ware with a tem­por­ary license pri­or to the work­shop.

Presenter Details

Brent Means is a Hydro­lo­gist with the U.S. Office of Sur­face Min­ing and has over two dec­ades of exper­i­ence in eval­u­at­ing the geo­chem­istry of mine pools and treat­ment pro­cesses. He has par­ti­cip­ated on numer­ous act­ive and pass­ive treat­ment design teams and was awar­ded the Depart­ment of Interior’s Envir­on­ment­al Achieve­ment Award for his work in devel­op­ing geo­chem­ic­al strategies to reduce treat­ment costs by $US700,000 per year at five large mine pool pump and treat­ment sys­tems.

Tom Meuze­laar is Prin­cip­al Con­sult­ant and Founder at Life Cycle Geo, a con­sult­ing firm that spe­cial­izes in geo­chem­istry work, includ­ing build­ing pre­dict­ive water qual­ity mod­els using tools such as The Geochemist’s Work­bench. Tom is a former com­mer­cial dis­trib­ut­or of the GWB soft­ware and has taught more the 35 geo­chem­ic­al mod­el­ing work­shops all over the world to aca­demia and industry. He works pre­dom­in­antly in the min­ing industry sup­port­ing cli­ents with per­mit­ting, oper­a­tion­al sup­port, and clos­ure work. LCG reg­u­larly part­ners with hydro­geo­logy and water treat­ment firms to sup­port vari­ous aspects of aban­doned mine lands mine drain­age remedi­ation work.