Synthesis and Characterization of Barium Sulphate from Acid Mine Drainage

Elevated concentration of sulphate in acid mine drainage (AMD) generated by some mining industry in South Africa is a worrisome issue to the water treatment industry and the South African government. The aim of conducting this research is to reduce if not completely remove the high concentration of sulphate present in acid mine water by using reagent grade chemical. Chemical precipitation technique was employed to synthesize barium sulphate from sulphate-rich acid mine water by adding barium chloride solution to form a white precipitate. The precipitate formed was characterized using analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HTREM), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The synthesized barium sulphate was compared with reagent grade salt characterization for XRD identified barite (BaSO₄) mineral phase, while the SEM and HRTEM revealed similar morphology and the BET surface area for both synthesized and reagent grade barium sulphate precipitate were determined to be 7.7 m²/g and 68 m²/g. The results from this study shows that sulphate in the acid mine water can be used to synthesize barium sulphate.