Methods for treating waste waters using sulfidized red mud sorbents

Abstract

Sorbents prepared according to the invention useful in remediation of polluted effluents including waste waters and other fluids such as air, the invention is particularly directed to use of sulfidized red muds in treatment of sanitary waste waters to substantially remove or reduce bacterial levels such as fecal coliform as well as phosphates and total dissolved solids (TDS). The sulfidized red mud sorbents of the invention are derived by sulfidation of red mud, a waste product of Bayer processing of bauxite ores, red muds being sulfidized by reaction with sulfidizing agents including H2S, NA2S, K2S, (NH4)2S and CaSx as examples. Sulfidized red muds used according to the invention typically exhibit a sulfur content from about 0.2 to about 10% above residual sulfur in the red mud used as the starting material for preparation of the sulfidized red mud sorbents used in the presently disclosed methods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.