Pumjan Sunthorn, Long Tran Thanh, Loc Ho Huu, Park Edward
Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Hochiminh City University of Technology, 268 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam; Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Jun 1;311:114821. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114821. Epub 2022 Mar 4.
Under the pressure of the existing world population growth trends, the dercreasing pastoral fields and the increasing duration and incidences of drought and heat stress, the potash fertilizers demand dramaticly increase to enhance the world food production. Asia currently consumes 40% of the world's potash market, yet 70% of world potash exports come from mines in Canada and Europe. Weak collective efforts to produce potassium fertilizers economically pose the risk of global shortages of potash goods and threatening global food security. While the Khorat Plateau in Northeastern Thailand is noted to contain active and promising regional potash deposits, developing a proper potash industry in the region has largely been unsuccessful due to major constraints such as the challenge of establishing a brine disposal solution. This study demonstrates the performance of deep well injection (DWI) as an environmentally friendly alternative to secure waste brine production from the potash mine. The groundwater numerical model demonstrates the movement and penetration of the concentrate during and after deep well injection. The boundary condition was utilized from the regional hydrogeology data. The waste brine injection is based on the waste products of the mine factory. Our simulation shows that the DWI can isolate waste brine with freshwater by injecting it into the deep formation based on the geologic structure and properties analysis. With high porosity and low specific yield, the Khok Kruat formation within Khrat Basin shows a high potential injection rate of 200,000 m/day, which is 200 times higher than current water brine production rates. Moreover, the salinity can easily dissolve into the target domain with specific formation properties. Hence, the DWI not only boosts the potash industry's image in the long term but also enable sustainable potash mining development in the region. Finally, we recommend that government agencies with regulatory oversight over the DWI must promote further research associated with site characterization, well construction and injection technologies, and monitoring tools in the long term.
在现有世界人口增长趋势、牧场面积减少以及干旱和热应激持续时间增加和发生率上升的压力下，钾肥需求急剧增加，以提高世界粮食产量。亚洲目前消费全球钾肥市场的40%，然而全球70%的钾肥出口来自加拿大和欧洲的矿山。在经济上生产钾肥的集体努力薄弱，这带来了钾肥全球短缺的风险，并威胁到全球粮食安全。虽然泰国东北部的呵叻高原被认为含有活跃且有前景的区域钾盐矿床，但由于诸如建立卤水处置解决方案等重大限制因素，该地区发展适当的钾肥产业在很大程度上并不成功。本研究展示了深井注入（DWI）作为一种环境友好型替代方案，用于确保钾盐矿产生的废卤水的安全处置。地下水数值模型展示了深井注入期间及之后浓缩液的运移和渗透情况。边界条件是根据区域水文地质数据确定的。废卤水注入基于矿厂的废品。我们的模拟表明，通过基于地质结构和特性分析将废卤水注入深层地层，深井注入可以将废卤水与淡水隔离开来。呵叻盆地内的霍克克鲁阿特地层孔隙度高、比出水量低，显示出高达200,000立方米/天的高注入潜力，这比目前的卤水产量高出200倍。此外，盐分能够很容易地溶解到具有特定地层特性的目标区域中。因此，深井注入不仅从长期来看提升了钾肥行业的形象，还能使该地区实现可持续的钾盐开采发展。最后，我们建议对深井注入具有监管 oversight的政府机构长期推动与场地特征描述、井的建设和注入技术以及监测工具相关的进一步研究。 （注：原文中“oversight”翻译为“监督”更合适，但按照要求保留原文拼写错误，实际正确拼写为“oversight” ）
