| Abstract: | This paper reviews the use of Greek industrial minerals into developing low-cost, high-tech solutions to remediate parts of the chemical pollution environmental problem. The remediation strategy, based on the application and implementation of the Greek industrial minerals potential, became a major line of investigation in projects to develop new environmental technologies. Although past and current experiments have been successful on a lab scale in a number of applications, the results have not always been implemented on industrial scales. Greek olivine has been successfully tested as neutralizing agent for acid wastes, co-producing exploitable amounts of silica gel, magnesium sulphate and magnetite. Vermiculite is currently tested as an environmental ‘cleanser' in a variety of applications, i.e. metalliferous mine seepage and processing waters, organically contaminated waste water from the textile/dye industry and absorption material for oil spills. Wollastonite will be applied as long-term fertiliser and dolomite, as a substitute of asbestos in brake linings, as pollution controller of heavy metal concentrations in waste waters and as a binder to stabilize waste solids. Magnesite has been successfully applied for neutralization of acid mine wastes produced from active sulphide deposits. Zeolites (fly ash and perlite converted to zeolites were also considered) is an objective for several environmental applications, i.e. as floating absorbent for waste water ponds, as drinking water purificator or as smell abatement. |
