Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit

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Established
  
2011

Website
  
IMWaRU webpage

Academic staff
  
5

Type of business
  
Research Unit

Campus
  
East campus

Founded
  
2011

Postgraduates
  
30

Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb0

Location
  
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

The Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit (abbreviated IMWaRU) is one of several research entities based in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It provides research as well as supervision to masters and doctorate students within the University; as well as consulting to industry.

Contents

Unit Structure

The unit deals with cross disciplinary water issues relating to industry and mining. As such the group includes experts in chemical engineering, microbiology and other sciences.

The unit includes five NRF rated researchers and over 20 masters and doctoral level postgraduate students in the faculties of engineering and science.

The logo of the Unit is in the shape of a drop of water, with the left half representing the blue of water.

The right half of the drop is modified to show grass and how water is linked to all life. Underneath the icon are the letters IMWaRU, while to the right, the name "Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit" appears.

Location

The unit is housed in several buildings across the University, most notably in the Richard Ward Building on East campus. Additionally, members are located in the Biology Building and have access to laboratories in the building.

They also have access to an outdoor facility on West Campus where constructed wetland, and other outdoor, experiments take place.

Research

The group has a broad range of research publications in the areas as listed below:

  • Acid mine drainage (AMD) - methods of reducing, treating and managing AMD.
  • Constructed wetlands (CW) - waste water remediation through natural biological processes.
  • Ecological Engineering
  • Grade Engineering
  • Industrial biotechnology - the use of biotechnology in water related applications e.g. for water purification and water reduction.
  • Industrial Ecology - the use of sustainability principles in reducing environmental impacts; particularly relating to water.
  • Life-cycle assessment (LCA) - quantification and minimisation of liquid/solid/gaseous waste at sites which include food processing, industrial bioprocessing and other sites.
  • Membrane technology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Ozone - determination of optimal treatment techniques for cooling water purification systems, chemical vs ozone.
  • Water footprinting (WF) - quantification and minimisation of water use on, amongst others, mine and paper/pulp sites.
  • and more.

    • Collaboration

    The unit works closely with the Centre in Water and Research Development.

    The unit actively collaborates with the Schools of Law, Chemistry, Civil and Mining Engineering as well as the Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute at the university. They have also collaborated with the Universities of Cape Town, Geneva, Queensland and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

    IMWaRU has had several Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) projects run through Wits Enterprise.

    The unit exhibited with several other groups at Mine Closure 2014.

    Presentations

    Members of the group have had presentations given at:

  • South African Institution of Chemical Engineering 2012 (Champagne Sports Resorts, South Africa);
  • Water Institute of Southern Africa 2012 (Cape Town, South Africa);
  • International Conference on Energy, Nanotechnology and Environmental Sciences 2013 (Johannesburg, South Africa);
  • International Conference on Power Science and Engineering 2013 (Paris, France);
  • Water in Mining 2013 (Brisbane, Australia);
  • Water in Mining 2014 (Viña del Mar, Chile);
  • Water Institute of Southern Africa 2014 (Mbombela, South Africa);
  • International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage 2015 (Santiago, Chile);
  • 25th Annual SETAC European Meeting 2015 (Barcelona, Spain);
  • African Utility Week 2015 (Cape Town, South Africa);
  • Sustainability Week 2015 (Water Resource Seminar) (Pretoria, South Africa);
  • Life Cycle Management 2015 (Bordeaux, France);
  • School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering 21st Birthday conference;
  • Water Institute of Southern Africa 2016 (Durban, South Africa) and more.

    • Awards

    The IMWaRU group was awarded a special presentation award at the GAP Bioscience gala dinner in December 2014 for work on remediating AMD using biological substrates.

    Charne Germuizhuizen received the best mine water presentation award, while Mogopoleng Chego received the 3rd place best technical talk, at the Water Institute of Southern Africa 2016 (WISA2016) conference in May 2016.

    References

    Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA