Establishing a conversion factor between electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids in South African mine waters

Authors

  • Elena Hubert TU Bergakademie Freiberg, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
  • Christian Wolkersdorfer 1. Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; 2. Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Laboratory of Green Chemistry, 50130 Mikkeli, Finland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/wsa.v41i4.08

Keywords:

EC, electrical conductivity, mine water, TDS, total dissolved solids, SA, South Africa

Abstract

Total dissolved solids (TDS, in mg/ℓ) can be estimated from measurements of electrical conductivity at 25°C (EC, in μS/cm) by applying a conversion factor f. This factor is commonly reported to range from 0.54 to 1.1. For 45 South African mine-water samples, factors between 0.25 and 1.34, with a median of 0.85, were determined. The samples cover an EC-range of 70– 16 000 μS/cm and TDS of 50–14 000 mg/ℓ. Linear regression for the entire dataset yields a conversion factor of 0.88 but for samples with EC < 5 000 μS/cm, a conversion factor of 0.97 is recommended. However, both of these factors allow only estimates of TDS and for accurate TDS values it is necessary to determine the conversion factor specifically for each site. Besides spatial variations, temporal variations of conversion factors were also observed.

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Published

2015-07-24

Issue

Vol. 41 No. 4 July (2015): Water SA

Section

Research paper

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Elena Hubert, Christian Wolkersdorfer

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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How to Cite

Elena Hubert and Christian Wolkersdorfer (2015) “Establishing a conversion factor between electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids in South African mine waters”, Water SA, 41(4 July). doi:10.4314/wsa.v41i4.08.