Balaji Seshadri (PhD Student)
University of South Australia
Project Title
Potential
value of coal combustion products (CCPs) in revegetation and
ecosystem development of degraded mine sites
Biography
Balaji
is a researcher from India, aspiring to take up a challenging
research career in Ecology and Environmental remediation. His
Bachelors and Masters degrees were in Biotechnology, from
Bharathiar University, India. Although Balaji did his Masters in
Biotechnology, his short research career till now has focussed on
Environmental conservation and restoration. Balaji's past research
experiences include Plant Biodiversity assessment in Western Ghats
(prominent Mountain ranges in South Western India) and Restoration
of Tsunami affected coastal areas in South India.
Start Date
May
2007
Project Details
In
Australia, approximately 80% of CCPs are treated, stored, or
disposed of by means of land management, and the remaining 20% are
recycled. Land management involves the use of surface impoundments,
landfills, mines, and quarries. The cost of disposal continues to
increase mainly because of the environmental regulations of waste
disposal and the limited availability of landfill sites. Hence,
there has been increasing efforts in the safe and sustainable
management of CCPs through recycling.
CCPs are used extensively in the construction industry mainly as a
source of concrete and road surface sealing, and in the
agricultural industry mainly as a source of liming material. There
has been increasing interest in the use of CCPs in the remediation
of contaminated environments. Some of these uses
include,
-
Control of acid mine drainage
-
Mitigating phosphorus leaching in farmlands
-
Immobilization of toxic metals in mine sites and agricultural
soils.
There
is an urgent need to optimize the composition of CCP amendments for
controlling acid mine drainage. Therefore, the overall objectives
of the research are to examine the ideal use of CCPs in
the
-
Remediation of acid mine drainage
-
Revegetation and ecosystem development of mine site.
