Treating Waste with Waste: Activated Bauxite Residue (ABR) as a Potential Wastewater Treatment

Bauxite residue (or red mud) is a highly alkaline waste generated during the extraction of alumina. As a result of the substantial accumulation of bauxite residue in tailings facilities, there is a growing interest in exploring the potential for reusing this material for other purposes. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the use of activated bauxite residue (ABR) for remediating oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) and as a supplement to municipal wastewater treatment through bench-scale, proof-of-concept studies. The ABR is produced through a reduction roasting process that alters the physicochemical properties of bauxite residue, resulting in the generation of potentially effective adsorbent media. The treatment performance via chemical and biological activity removals (cytotoxicity, estrogenicity, and mutagenicity) was also assessed. For OSPW, ABR treatment resulted in the effective removal of recalcitrant acid-extractable organics (AEOs), with kinetics following the pseudo-second-order and comparable adsorption capacity to other waste materials (e.g., petroleum coke). ABR also effectively reduced the estrogenicity and mutagenicity of OSPW, albeit cytotoxicity increased at higher dosages, possibly due to some components leaching out of the material (e.g., metals). For municipal wastewater, ABR treatment reduced fecal coliform concentrations (>99%), total phosphorus (up to 98%), total ammonia-nitrogen (63%), estrogenicity (nondetectable), and mutagenicity (nondetectable), especially in the primary effluent. The ultimate end use of ABR is for the recovery of valuable metals (especially iron) and as a construction material, but additional work is needed to optimize the dosage (currently in the g/L range) and maximize the use of ABR as an adsorbent prior to its subsequent uses.