Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a negative ecological problem that continues to affect the environment, drinking water, and plant and animal life. 

One of the greatest challenges of AMD treatment is the development of an effective method of removing metals and transforming the acidic water’s chemical properties to meet regulatory requirements at industrial sites and remote mine locations. 

Blue Sky Technologies has developed a new AMD treatment method that selectively removes metal contaminants, producing clean water in order to meet stringent regulatory requirements. Multiple valance metals are a very important but sometimes overlooked factor for metal recovery processes and wastewater treatment. The ionic valence state of each metal ion requires treatment as a separate contaminant for successful removal. The Blue Sky Technologies (BST) separation process uses a series of Ionic State Modification (ISM) reactors that sequentially oxidize or reduce targeted metal ions to change their valence state, allowing each metal to precipitate out of solution. With the addition of proper hydroxide chemicals, metals will form insoluble metal hydroxides and precipitate at a pH of between 7.0 and 9.5.

Utilizing the BST AMD technology for water clean up provides significant economic and operational savings for the end user. At a Northern California industrial site (14 months of operation, 51+ gallons of water treated), NPDES regulatory discharge levels were repeatedly met, and operational costs reduced 20%. Depending on the waste stream, post-treatment sludge may be reduced by as much as 60 to 90% (compared to conventional lime treatments). 

The ISM process is successful removing contaminants at sites with high or relatively low discharge volumes. BST also has a self-contained mobile unit that easily integrates into treatment plans at remote locations. In addition, there is the potential for recovering the value of the metals through recycling of the post-treatment precipitated metal ion cakes.