Ana Fernandez-Iglesias, PhD

Informe Empleo en Sostenibilidad y Medio Ambiente

Most of the major industrial processes require the use of water either for cooling or as process water. In cold regions the existence of ice is very common in rivers and lakes during the winter. Even with underwater intakes their presence becomes a problem when supercooling appears. Frazil ice grows rapidly and adhere to the grids coming to clog the pipe systems that feed facilities such as hydroelectric power plants, factories or even municipal supplies. This phenomenon leads to severe… Mostrar más

Most of the major industrial processes require the use of water either for cooling or as process water. In cold regions the existence of ice is very common in rivers and lakes during the winter. Even with underwater intakes their presence becomes a problem when supercooling appears. Frazil ice grows rapidly and adhere to the grids coming to clog the pipe systems that feed facilities such as hydroelectric power plants, factories or even municipal supplies. This phenomenon leads to severe problems, even resulting in the closure of the plant affected. This paper presents a review on the main aspects of this problem in certain industries and an analysis of its causes and possible solutions as well as an analysis of use cases. Mostrar menos

Paste and thickened tailings technology is nowadays a proven solution for one of the biggest environmental impacts of mining activities: tailings disposal. Among the various drivers that this technology has, water is probably one of the most important, not only from an environmental perspective but also from an economic one.
This paper applies the methodology proposed by the Water Footprint Network International and later published as an ISO norm, to assess the differential Water Footprint… Mostrar más

Paste and thickened tailings technology is nowadays a proven solution for one of the biggest environmental impacts of mining activities: tailings disposal. Among the various drivers that this technology has, water is probably one of the most important, not only from an environmental perspective but also from an economic one.
This paper applies the methodology proposed by the Water Footprint Network International and later published as an ISO norm, to assess the differential Water Footprint of two scenarios, conventional tailings management and its alternative process, paste and thickened tailings. Mostrar menos

According to the database compiled by the US Commission on Large Dams (USCOLD) and completed later by the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there have been two or more major tailing dam failure incidents per year between 1970 and 2000, proving that these catastrophic failure events are not rare occurrences. Paste and thickened tailings (P&TT) technology has emerged in recent years as a promising technique to avoid dam incidents. Due… Mostrar más

According to the database compiled by the US Commission on Large Dams (USCOLD) and completed later by the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there have been two or more major tailing dam failure incidents per year between 1970 and 2000, proving that these catastrophic failure events are not rare occurrences. Paste and thickened tailings (P&TT) technology has emerged in recent years as a promising technique to avoid dam incidents. Due to the low water content of the P&TT, the potential for liquefaction is reduced drastically in comparison to conventional tailing dams. This is one of the major advantages of the technology, alongside the volume reduction and the absence of bleed water. However, paste also has some drawbacks such as higher energy consumption and extra equipment requirements. Due to these advantages and drawbacks, a set of different tools is required to assess the feasibility of a paste facility at a specific mine. Among these tools, those related to risk become important since one of the major advantages of paste is related to this dimension. Thus, selecting the right tool for analysis is a key factor in the decision-making process that may lead to the selection of P&TT as an alternative to conventional tailings storage. Although the goal of the study is to make a general comparison not applied to any specific mine, it can also be used as a methodology or template for a risk assessment for any existing installation. Mostrar menos

Thickening tailings until they reach a paste-consistency configuration is a process involving many factors. Lab scale work is required prior to studying the feasibility of paste thickening technologies for a given tailings. The global objective is to determine if a representative sample of non-thickened tailings can be engineered at laboratory scale to make paste; this work and its results will help determine the feasibility of the thickening process and the potential paste characteristics at… Mostrar más

Thickening tailings until they reach a paste-consistency configuration is a process involving many factors. Lab scale work is required prior to studying the feasibility of paste thickening technologies for a given tailings. The global objective is to determine if a representative sample of non-thickened tailings can be engineered at laboratory scale to make paste; this work and its results will help determine the feasibility of the thickening process and the potential paste characteristics at industrial scale. This document aims to justify the need for this lab scale work and to provide information regarding lab scale paste thickeners by presenting the experiences obtained with an experimental lab-scale thickener. Mostrar menos

Paste and thickened tailings (P&TT) technology has important advantages not only from the safety point of view, but especially from the environmental point of view. The objective of this paper is to prove that this technology is a real sustainable alternative that can be evaluated using life‐cycle analysis (LCA) methodology.