Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:33:11.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New microbiological strategies that enable the selective recovery and recycling of metals from acid mine drainage and mine process waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

I. Ňancucheo ,
S. Hedrich  and
D. B. Johnson
I. Ňancucheo
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2UW, UK Agriculture of Desert and Biotechnology, Universidad Arturo Prat, Iquique, Chile
S. Hedrich
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2UW, UK
D. B. Johnson*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2UW, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Approaches currently used for remediating acid mine drainage (chiefly active chemical treatment and passive bioremediation systems) have a number of major detractions, including their failure to recover potentially valuable metals from these waters. Bioremediation strategies that utilizereactor-housed microorganisms can circumvent this problem, but have tended not to be widely used due to their relatively high costs. We have devised innovative approaches for remediating mine waters that use acidophilic bacteria to remove metals either as oxidized or reduced phases, usingmodular bioreactors that are designed to operate at minimal cost and to generate products that have commercial value. A composite system is described that combines microbial oxidation of ferrous iron with abiotic precipitation of ferric iron as schwertmannite, a mineral that has commercialvalue as an absorbent of arsenate and other environmental pollutants, and as a pigment. Sulfidogenic bioreactors maintained at acidic pH values are used to selectively precipitate metal sulfides, such as CuS. Tests with synthetic mine drainage containing mixtures of soluble metals confirmedthat these systems can generate relatively pure mineral deposits from complex acid waters. The units are designed to be configured differently, according to the nature of the mine water requiring treatment.

Keywords

acid mine drainagebioreactorsiron oxidationremediationschwertmannitesulfate reduction
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 7 , December 2012 , pp. 2683 - 2692
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, M., Lawrence, R. and Bratty, M. (2008) Biogenic sulfide for cyanide recycle and copper recovery in gold-copper ore processing. Minerals Engineering, 21, 509–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boonstra, J., van Lier, R., Janssen, G., Dijkman, H. and Buisman, C.J.N. (1999) Biological treatment of acid mine drainage. Pp. 559–567.in: Biohydrometallurgy and the Environment Toward the Mining of the 21st Century (R. Amils and A. Ballester, editors). Process Metallurgy 9B. Elsevier, Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedrich, S. and Johnson, D.B. (2012) A modular continuous flow reactor system for the selective bio-oxidation and precipitation of iron in mineimpacted waters. Bioresource Technology, 106, 44–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hedrich, S., Schlömann, M. and Johnson, D.B. (2011) The iron-oxidizing Proteobacteria. Microbiology, 157, 1551–1564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heinzel, E., Janneck, E., Glombitza, F., Schlömann, M. and Seifert, J. (2009) Population dynamics of ironoxidizing communities in pilot plants for the treatment of acid mine waters. Environmental Science & Technology, 43, 6138–6144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janneck, E., Arnold, I., Koch, T., Meyer, J., Burghard, D. and Ehinger, S. (2010) Microbial synthesis of schwertmannite from lignite mine water and its utilization for removal of arsenic from mine waters and for production of iron pigments. Pp. 131–134.in: Mine Water and Innovative Thinking (C. Wolkersdorfer and A. Freund, editors). Proceedings of the IMWA 2010. International Mine Water Association, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada Google Scholar
Johnson, D.B. (2003) Chemical and microbiological characteristics of mineral spoils and drainage waters at abandoned coal and metal mines. Water, Air and Soil Pollution Focus, 3, 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D.B. and Hallberg, K.B. (2005) Acid mine drainage: remediation options. Science of the Total Environment, 338, 3–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolmert, A., Henrysson, T., Hallberg, R. and Mattiasson, B. (1997) Optimization of sulphide production in an anaerobic biofilm process with sulphate reducing bacteria. Biotechnology Letters, 19, 971–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovley, D.R. and Phillips, E.J.P. (1987) Rapid assay for microbially reducible ferric iron in aquatic sediments. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 53, 1536–1540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monhemius, A.J. (1977) Precipitation diagrams for metal hydroxides, sulfides, arsenates and phosphates. Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 86, C202–C206.Google Scholar
Ňancucheo, I. and Johnson, D.B. (2009) Development of an integrated ecological engineering approach for securing metal mine wastes and remediating mine waters. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, (http:// www.proceedings-stfandicard-2009.com/).Google Scholar
Ňancucheo, I. and Johnson, D.B. (2012) Selective removal of transition metals from acidic mine waters by novel consortia of acidophilic sulfidogenic bacteria. Microbial Biotechnology, 5, 34–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nordstrom, D.K. (2000) Advances in the hydrogeochemistry and microbiology of acid mine waters. International Geology Review, 42, 499–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, O.F. and Johnson, D.B. (2008) Comparison of ferric iron generation by different species of acidophilic bacteria immobilized in packed-bed reactors. Systematic and Applied Microbiology, 31, 68–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed