Research progress of water environment,treatment and utilization in coal mining areas of China

Coal has long occupied the dominant status in the energy consumption structure of China. A series of water environmental issues have been caused from mines construction,coal mining,coal washing,mines closure and aban- doned mines,and gradually become the outstanding issues in the development of coal industry. The Chinese govern- ment is willing to support the coal industry marching towards the “coal revolution” and the safe green mining has been the theme of the new era. The environmental protection authorities are paying more attention to the water environment of coal mining areas. This paper analyzes and summarizes the current situations of water environment in Chinese coal mining areas. Aiming at different mining areas and types,the mine water pollution model and types,structural damage of aquifer group,water resource loss,trace metals enrichment in the soil of coal mine,and environmental and geological problems resulted from water level rebound in abandoned coal mines are presented. The current situation,technology level and future development tendency of coal mines in China are analyzed. Based on the treatment,water quality char- acteristic of mine water,different technologies including clean mine water (physical method),mine water with suspen- ded solids coagulation and supermagnetic separation method),high salinity (distillation,ion-exchange and membrane separation methods),special metals ( physical,chemical and biological methods),acid mine water ( flocculation pre- cipitation and ion-exchange methods) and mine water reinjection ( deep reinjection) are compared,their merits and demerits are showed. The search direction for future is presented. Then,the resourceful situation of mine water utiliza- tion is summarized. The superiority and limitation of the resourceful utilization for mine water in the industrial,agricul- tural and living use as well as special water are listed,the technical system and theoretical framework of mine water re- sourceful utilization in special mine water are put forward to provide the technical support for the improvement of mine water utilization in coal mining areas. In the end,three principles including “ blocking,reduction and protection” are put forward to solve the existing problems in mine water utilization. Also,the expectation of mine water environment, treatment and utilization in coal mining areas of China are presented.