Environment Month takes place annually in June. It is an opportunity for industry leaders to stand together to set an example for other organisations on improving the state of the environment locally. BN Aqua Solutions and ROC Water Technologies, two companies incubated at The Innovation Hub’s Climate Innovation Centre SA business incubator, treat water in local mining sites to provide clean drinking water, contributing to a cleaner environment.
One of the environmental issues that South Africa faces is water pollution in and from local mining sites. Statistics show that 118 mines around South Africa are polluting rivers, inadequately testing for contamination or otherwise dirtying South Africa’s waterways1.
“Water scarcity refers to the lack of fresh water resources available to meet the standard water demand. In South Africa, we have major problems with the supply of clean water for drinking, bathing and agricultural processes. Finding solutions to the water scarcity problem remains a priority in our country,” says advocate Pieter Holl, CEO of The Innovation Hub.
One factor that has contributed to the water scarcity issue has been the dispersing of dust particles from the mine dumps into surrounding homes and over water sources during the rainy and windy seasons. This dust contains a mixture of chemicals like arsenic and cyanide, which could expose those who use the toxic water to all sorts of health issues, from brain damage to skin cancers.
Even the religious procedure of baptising makes use of open rivers, dams and lakes. As an example, masses gathered at the Fleurhof dam in Soweto for baptisms, but questions were raised on the safety of the water and whether or not the people being baptised will get water poisoning as the dam is close to a local mining site. 2
BN Aqua Solutions takes acidic mine water from underground and treats the contaminated water to drinking stage by using a waste product, which is locally available. They have built a prototype model at the CSIR, where they have conducted various tests proving that they can provide clean drinking water.
What makes the project innovative is the use of waste material to treat the contaminated mine water. Not only is the result clean drinking water, but also reduction in waste material. BN Aqua Solutions reduce the environmental footprint currently caused by this unused metallurgical product. “This waste product, is a by-product of a metallurgical process, and it has been stockpiled without use,” says Boitumelo Nkatlo, Founder of BN Aqua Solutions.
Non-compliant mines have been paying hefty fines instead of investing in the rehabilitation of the environment. “The operating mines are currently non-compliant to the environmental regulations. We treat contaminated water making the mines compliant whilst producing drinking water at a cheaper rate as we are using a waste product, the excess water can be used by the surrounding low-income communities for irrigation, domestic (Covid19 regulations) and agricultural purposes in order to increase our country’s food security,” says Nkatlo. “We have found a cheaper solution to this problem and can also recover saleable minerals such as gypsum, magnetite and synthetic lime from the residual slag, which can help to off-set the plant operating cost,” he adds.
“It is foreseen that mine water can be treated to recover not only drinking water but also pigment, aluminium hydroxide, calcium carbonate, sodium carbonate and elemental sulphur,” says Jannie Maree, Founder of ROC Water Technologies.
ROC Water Technologies has designed a ROC (Reverse osmosis/Cooling) process that can treat acid mine water to recover drinking water and saleable products in its various stages. Ferric hydroxide is recovered in the first stage of the ROC process, where sodium carbonate increases the pH to 3.5. The remaining steps of the ROC process make provision for removing the remaining metals in the water by raising the pH to 7.5, followed by recovery of drinking water and a brine stream through reverse osmosis.
“Protection of the environment in a cost-effective way is the main focus of ROC Water Technologies. The focus is not economic growth OR the environment but economic growth AND the Environment,” says Maree. “We aim to implement innovative technical solutions that provide cost-effective solutions for waste streams through recovery and selling of products that are needed in the market,” he adds.
“We believe that companies such as BN Aqua Solutions and ROC Water Technologies have a positive impact on the environment,” says Holl. “These companies improve the standard of water from mining sites in South Africa and help us tackle problems such as water scarcity with real, tangible solutions,” he adds.
For more information on The Innovation Hub, please contact Linah Nematandani at lnematandani@theinnovationhub.com | (+27) 12 8440030/ (+27) 71 673 9964 or visit www.theinnovationhub.com.
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