Separating Pro-Environment Technologies for Waste Treatment, Soil and Sediments Remediation

Book excerpt: The removal of contaminants and pollutants from natural or valuable materials is a critical issue in environmental management and conservation. Fundamentally, the procedure consists of measures employed to separate what is good (recyclable materials, soil and sediments) from what is bad (non recyclable materials, contaminants). A perspective of current technologies developed for mineral processing is of great assistance for finding appropriate solutions for different environmental situations. The liberation and separation processes adopted to recover valuable minerals from a gangue are, in principle, the same processes that can be applied to waste materials for recovering useful materials and to soil and sediments to reduce contamination. Separating Pro-Environment Technologies for Waste Treatment, Soil and Sediments Remediation investigates how technologies for separation, that take origin form mineral processing, have improved and evolved when applied to waste treatment and soil and sediment remediation.