Browsing by Subject "Brine"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Holocene evolution of the Anichab Pan on the south-west coast of Namibia.
    (Wiley, 2007) Compton, John S
    Coastal sediment-filled depressions (pans) are one of the few areas that contain Quaternary records of sea-level and palaeoenvironmental change along the western margin of southern Africa. Anichab is a 128 km2 salt-encrusted pan on the hyper-arid southern coast of Namibia with an emergent, well-preserved and in-place mid-Holocene mollusc assemblage. The molluscs are typical of subtidal sands on the sheltered side of offshore islands but include several warm-water species no longer found living along this coast. The Holocene evolution of the pan was largely influenced by changes in sea level and supply of sand along the coast. Calibrated radiocarbon ages of mollusc shells indicate a maximum Holocene sea level of ca 2 m above mean sea level (msl) from 7Æ0 to 6Æ3 ka and a return to near present-day sea level by 5Æ3 ka. The pan surface is 2 m below msl and has been emergent since 4Æ9 ka from the build up of sandy beaches and coastal dunes. A thin (1–4 cm) halite crust occurs over much of the pan surface but a layer of halite-cemented sand up to 40 cm thick is restricted to the central pan. Gypsum occurs near the subsurface brine interface and is limited by calcium to the edges of the pan. Nodules of calcite-cemented sand are forming in brackish, relatively high alkalinity subsurface waters in the southeast corner of the pan and nodules of aragonite-cemented sand are forming in brines 1 m below the central pan surface. Although modern dolomite has been reported from coastal lagoons of Brazil and Australia, carbonate cements are a minor feature of Anichab Pan and dolomite was restricted to a single reworked nodule most likely of Late Pleistocene age. Therefore, Anichab Pan does not appear to be a modern analogue to extensive, mixed-water dolomite cements found in Upper Pleistocene sediment-filled depressions on the Namibian shelf
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Restricted
    Recovery of Na2SO4·10H2O from a reverse osmosis retentate by eutectic freeze crystallisation technology.
    (Elsevier, 2010) Reddy, S T; Lewis, A E; Witkamp, G J; Kramer, H J M; van Spronsen, J
    The increasing amount of waste water and effluent from South Africa’s mining industry forms a growing problem, which processing requires sustainable solutions in which both the water and the dissolved component can be reused. Eutectic freeze crystallisation (EFC) has been identified as a key technology that is not only energy efficient, but also produces ice and salt products of high quality. Unlike reverse osmosis membrane systems, EFC can treat both dilute and concentrated systems minimising waste water volumes. In this paper it is shown that freeze and eutectic freeze crystallisation can be used for the processing of a reverse osmosis retentate stream containing 4% NaSO4 and a number of impurities (F, Cl, K, Li, Mg, Ca, NO3 and NH4), producing both pure water and NaSO4•10H2O crystals. The influence of the impurities on the eutectic point and on the crystal structure of mirabilite was investigated using EFC technology investigated for a pure binary system, for a synthetic reverse osmosis retentate as well as for a concentrated NaCl system. In addition, investigations into the recovery and purity of mirabilite for these streams were conducted.