Are Wetlands as an Integrated Bioremediation System Applicable for the Treatment of Wastewater from Underground Coal Gasification Processes?

Jacek Borgulat, Katarzyna Ponikiewska, Łukasz Jałowiecki, Aleksandra Strugała-Wilczek and Grażyna Płaza
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Jacek Borgulat: Environmental Microbiology Unit, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Kossutha 6 Str., 40-844 Katowice, Poland
Katarzyna Ponikiewska: Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Łukasz Jałowiecki: Environmental Microbiology Unit, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Kossutha 6 Str., 40-844 Katowice, Poland
Aleksandra Strugała-Wilczek: Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarków 1, 40-166 Katowice, Poland
Grażyna Płaza: Environmental Microbiology Unit, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Kossutha 6 Str., 40-844 Katowice, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Underground coal gasification (UCG) can be considered as one of the clean coal technologies. During the process, the gas of industrial value is produced, which can be used to produce heat and electricity, liquid fuels or can replace natural gas in chemistry. However, UCG does carry some environmental risks, mainly related to potential negative impacts on surface and groundwater. Wastewater and sludge from UCG contain significant amounts of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, ammonia, cyanides and hazardous metals such as arsenic. This complicated matrix containing high concentrations of hazardous pollutants is similar to wastewater from the coke industry and, similarly to them, requires complex mechanical, chemical and biological treatment. The focus of the review is to explain how the wetlands systems, described as one of bioremediation methods, work and whether these systems are suitable for removing organic and inorganic contaminants from heavily contaminated industrial wastewater, of which underground coal gasification wastewater is a particularly challenging example. Wetlands appear to be suitable systems for the treatment of UCG wastewater and can provide the benefits of nature-based solutions. This review explains the principles of constructed wetlands (CWs) and provides examples of industrial wastewater treated by various wetland systems along with their operating principles. In addition, the physicochemical characteristics of the wastewater from different coal gasifications under various conditions, obtained from UCG’s own experiments, are presented.

Keywords: wetlands; bioremediation; bacteria; underground coal gasification (UCG); industrial wastewater (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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