Wastewater

Bioenergy from wastewater in Silver Mine.
Statement of the problem
The Mine Industry has been highly implemented during the last 10 years in Mexico; gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead mines are operating around all the country and most of these mines are utilizing Cyanide, a potential chemical that separates the minerals from the soil.
“Cyanide is a chemical group consisting of one atom ofcarbon connected to one atom of nitrogen by three molecular bonds (C≡N) and cyanides are compounds that contain a cyanide group (Typically shown as CN)” (1). Many of the cyanides in soil and water come from industrial process. Sodium cyanide is the form of cyanide that metal mining process discharges in water.
Sodium cyanide is a white solid with a slight, bitter, almond-like odor in damp air.The metallurgic process that separate silver from soil uses cyanide as a dissolvent agent; the process produces high levels of cyanide sludge and wastewater that causes serious damage to the environment. Despite that problem, cyanide process continues to be used in mining, because of its low cost, efficiency, and simplicity.
Approximately 300,000 m³ of water per day are used in the process; thewater at the end of the process is completely contaminated and lost of the water cycle. Actually, developed Mines in Mexico have a reutilization process for the water, it uses filters that removed impurities and allows the liquid to be used again for the cyanide process. The reutilization process could be executed permanently, which ensures that just the starting amount of water will be the lastquantity to be used.
The biggest challenge is that the rest of the mines have not implemented this process; they use daily amounts of water which in most cases has flowed into the drainage or even worse into the rivers. The flow of this kind of wastewater that contains high levels of Cyanide in Mexican Rivers is affecting population and wildlife.
Electric energy production in research papers hasbeen achieved using different kinds of bacterium in a Microbial Fuel Cell. The development of this technology is an alternative solution for the wastewater from mining. It uses dangerous wastes to produce an indispensable source for any industry, provides money savings, safe energy and the most important is that it protects the environment.
The question of this proposal research is, arecomponents of the wastewater from a Mexican Silver Mine capable of producing energy?
Analysis of the principal work researches background and components which could proportionate data and evidence to determine if the hypothesis of produce energy is possible.
Literature review
* Hagare B. D., Muttucumaru S., Raghu N. S. (2009). Wastewater characteristics, management and reuse in Mining and Mineralprocessing industries, Volume 1, Wastewater recycle, reuse, and reclamation, Encyclopedia of life support systems, Australia.
The article will be a tool to identify the principal components of the wastewater from mining. The article classify the components in 5 categories, physical, organic chemical, inorganic chemical, biological and radiological. The knowledge of the components is important tobecause it is going to determine if the energy production could be possible at this medium.
* Kelada N. P., (1989) Automated direct of total cyanide species and thiocyanate, and their distribution in wastewater and sludge. Water Pollution Control Federation, 61, No. 3, 350-356.
The article presents an example of the cyanide measurement in industrial water; it calculates three different amounts,dissociable cyanide, total cyanide, and total cyanide plus thiocyanate in untreated wastewater, treated effluent, and sludge samples of some treatments plants. It will give an approximate of the amount of cyanide in a similar wastewater.
* Shen Z., Han B., Wickramasinghe R., (2004) Cyanide removal from wastewater using gas membranes. Pilot-scale study. Water Environment Federation, 76, No....