Antiscalant and its deactivation in zero/minimized liquid discharge (ZLD/MLD) application in the mining sector - Opportunities, challenges and prospective

Mining wastewater is inherently challenging to achieve zero or minimal liquid discharge (ZLD/ MLD) due to the high scale of the wastewater and the physical site constraints. This article highlights contextualized challenges for mining applications and also proposes a novel perspective on coupling antiscalants (AS) and downstream antiscalant deactivation technology (ASDT). ASDT is a relatively new concept that overcomes the limitation of water recoveries at the maximal TDS of 70 g/L by treating and desalting brines. The coupling of AS and ASDT can hence result in lower treatment costs by enhancing crystallization performance and enhancing water recovery with higher RO recoveries. Mining-specific scales, unique wastewater combinations, and physical constraints of mining sites are bottlenecks, and their potential mitigation methods are further explored in this article. Overall, this article provides an overview of the AS and ASDT applications and provides insightful future perspectives to address current challenges in mining wastewater applications.