A clay-coal fly ash based dual hydraulic-reactive liner for controlling acid mine drainage

Hydraulic liners are used to restrict hazardous leachates such as acid mine drainage (AMD) from entering the hydrogeological system. In this study, we hypothesized that: (1) a compacted mix ratio of natural clay and coal fly ash with a hydraulic conductivity of at most 1 × 10− 8 ms− 1 can be achieved, and (2) mixing clay and coal fly ash in the right proportion can result in increased contaminant removal efficiency of a liner system. The effects of adding coal fly ash to clay on the mechanical behavior, contaminant removal efficiency, and saturated hydraulic conductivity of the liner were investigated. All clay:coal fly ash specimen liners with less than 30% coal fly ash had significantly (p < 0.05) lower cohesion stress values, and were discarded without further tests. Saturated hydraulic conductivity values showed no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the results of clay:coal fly ash (7:3) specimen liners and compacted clay liner. The clay:coal fly ash mix ratios of 8:2 and 7:3 significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the leachate concentration of Cu, Ni, and Mn. The pH of AMD increased from an average of 2.14 to 6.80 after permeating through a compacted specimen of mix ratio 7:3. Overall, the 7:3 clay to coal fly ash liner showed superior pollutant removal capacity and its mechanical and hydraulic properties were comparable to compacted clay liners. This laboratory scale investigation emphasizes potential limitations with column scale evaluation of liners and provides new information on the application of dual hydraulic reactive liners for engineered hazardous waste disposal systems.