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The development and evaluation of solar desalination technology DM van Tonder 1,2 , CJS Fourie 1 1. Department of Environmental, Water and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa, dvtonder@geoscience.org.za; fouriecjs@tut.ac.za 2. Council for Geoscience, Environmental Division, Pretoria, South Africa ABSTRACT South Africa has limited water resources and many parts of the country have limited access to water. Almost all of its national available water resources (98%) already allocated. Predictions suggest that South Africa would have a serious water allocation problem in the very near future. In the semi-arid to arid regions of the country significant salt loading in groundwater occurs where anthropogenic influences can be excluded. Other areas are heavily impacted by mining, which results in the degradation of surface and ground water quality, specifically with respect to salinity and acidification. The energy crisis in South Africa has highlighted the need for alternative energy sources. Although solar energy has been utilsed to some extent in South Africa, the full potential for alternative uses of solar power has not been exploited. Desalination has become an accepted water treatment process around the world and is becoming a price-competitive option. Distillation involves heating a liquid until it vaporizes, and condensing the vapor and collecting it in a separate container. The most widely used solar desalination system is a simple solar still. The main disadvantage of the current simple solar still is its low yield efficiency, which rarely exceeds 50% of the input volume (10-20 l) during a day. Research on alternative designs within the South African context and particularly on increasing the effectiveness of solar distillation technology is lacking. This study will focus on the development of an alternative solar desalination technology which will endeavour to improve the effectiveness of solar distillation and its application for rural water supply (to be distributed by the Science & Technology Train) by utilising solar heating panels as an alternative heat source. The project will also be applied in the mining industry in an attempt to provide an alternative, cost effective and sustainable way of improving the water quality in mining impacted areas. The proposed solar desalination technology will attempt to effectively eliminate all waterborne pathogens, salts, and heavy metals. The proposed project has the following steps: (a) the development of a laboratory set-up for testing the efficiency of the removal of salts and heavy metals from brackish drinking water and mine water, (b) the evaluation of the effectiveness and application limitations of the proposed solar distillation method and (c) the evaluation of the potential for a pilot solar desalination system. KEYWORDS: Solar, desalination, distillation, water quality, sustainable 84
Investigation of the potential for mineral carbonation of South African PGM tailings 1 J. Vogeli, 2 D.L. Reid, 1 M. Becker, 1 J. Broadhurst, 1 J-P. Franzidis 1 Minerals to Metals Initiative, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, SA, vgljac001@uct.ac.za 2 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, SA david.reid@uct.ac.za ABSTRACT Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration is currently of considerable concern in terms of global warming. A possible technology that can contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions is its sequestration by mineral carbonation. In this study, tailings from several different platinum mines in South Africa will be mineralogically characterised and their potential for mineral carbonation reviewed. Mg and Ca-rich minerals (plagioclase, olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene) present in the tailings are good candidates for mineral carbonation, which mimics natural weathering processes in which these minerals react with gaseous CO2 to form Ca or Mg carbonates. Since the reaction is influenced by particle surface area, the ultra fine grained nature of the PGM tailings provides another reason for the promise of PGM tailings for mineral carbonation. A preliminary ranking of the tailings samples and their efficacy for mineral carbonation has been developed according to whether the samples showed harzburgtic (eg. Northam Platinum mine), pyroxenetic (eg. BRPM) or noritic mineral assemblages. This information and understanding will assist in identifying opportunities and guiding the development of engineered facilities for the sequestration of CO2 by means of mineral carbonation. KEYWORDS: global warming, mineral carbonation, PGM tailings 85
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