Publicaties

Multiple inhibitors are commercially available to mitigate the formation of both scaling and corrosion precipitates. However, the conditions in a geothermal installation are often extreme. This includes high temperatures and high pressures besides the presence of a possibly very saline fluid. In the Balmatt geothermal installation of Mol (Belgium) pressure was kept at 45 bar, which is higher than most other geothermal installations. The ...

Sulfidic mine tailings are potential waste materials from mining and mineral processing, and they can contain a high content of sulfur and metal(loid)s, even after bioleaching. Due to the large amount of tailings waste from historical mining, it is crucial to find alternative methods for utilizing such waste rather than permanent storage in tailings impoundments. One-part alkali-activated slag mortars are promising co-binder systems for the ...

Purpose This study analyzes which worldviews on the interrelatedness of the economic, environmental and social systems are adopted in the literature on responsible management education (RME) and explores how this affects the way business schools educate future responsible managers. Design/methodology/approach The sustainability-focused relational worldviews of Kurucz et al. (2014) were used to perform a content analysis on 100 articles from the ...

Sulfidic mine waste can pose environmental and human health risks, especially when it contains high levels of mobile metal(loid)s. To assess the environmental and health risks of mine waste originating from three historic and active sulfidic Pb-, Zn- and/or Cu-mines in Europe, mineralogical and chemical characterizations were conducted in combination with in vitro bioaccessibility tests, sequential extractions and leaching tests. Results ...

An integrated mineralogical and chemical characterization approach was applied to different types of mine waste collected from the ancient Pb–Zn mining area of Plombières. The combination of different methods to determine (pseudo-)total element concentrations, sequential extractions, and quantitative mineralogical analysis provided detailed information on the reactivity of minerals in the waste, as well as the associated metal(loid) release ...

Mining and quarrying waste is the second largest waste stream in Europe. Sulfidic ore processing residues (tailings) pose a large challenge, because they contain hazardous metal(loid)s and because they can lead to acid mine drainage. However, mine tailings also contain valuable base, precious, and critical metals, which can be used in different technological applications, as well as silicates and clay minerals that offer possibilities for use in ...

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source by which heat is extracted from the subsurface. Due to changes in pressure and temperature and chemical reactions when the geothermal fluid is pumped through the wells and surface installations, scales can be formed. These scales can accumulate in different locations of the geothermal system and/or parts of the surface installation and cause clogging of the wells, pumps, pipes, heat exchangers ...

The presence of Naturally Occurring Radionuclides (NORs) in geothermal fluids is a recurring issue in geothermal projects all over the world. During the first pumping tests of the production well MOL-GT-S1-01 at the Balmatt geothermal plant (Mol, Belgium) in 2015, the geothermal water was transferred towards a nearby basin. The original geothermal fluid was characterized by a226Ra concentration of ~170 Bq L−1 (February 2019). In the meantime, ...

Developing legislation on soil protection, including soil quality standards, is not straightforward for areas with high geogenic metal(loid) concentrations in rocks and soils. Several rock types in southern Luxembourg (laterally continuous into Northern France and Southern Belgium) contain elevated potentially toxic element concentrations. Toarcian and Aalenian Minette ironstones, and soils on top, possess high As concentrations (average of ~100 ...