Competitive Growth of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria with Bioleaching Acidophiles for Bioremediation of Heap Bioleaching Residue

Aung Kyaw Phyo, Yan Jia, Qiaoyi Tan, Heyun Sun, Yunfeng Liu, Bingxu Dong and Renman Ruan
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Aung Kyaw Phyo: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yan Jia: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Qiaoyi Tan: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Heyun Sun: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yunfeng Liu: Wanbao Mining Limited, Beijing 100053, China
Bingxu Dong: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Renman Ruan: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Mining waste rocks containing sulfide minerals naturally provide the habitat for iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, and they accelerate the generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) by promoting the oxidation of sulfide minerals. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are sometimes employed to treat the AMD solution by microbial-induced metal sulfide precipitation. It was attempted for the first time to grow SRB directly in the pyritic heap bioleaching residue to compete with the local iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes. The acidic SRB and iron-reducing microbes were cultured at pH 2.0 and 3.0. After it was applied to the acidic heap bioleaching residue, it showed that the elevated pH and the organic matter was important for them to compete with the local bioleaching acidophiles. The incubation with the addition of organic matter promoted the growth of SRB and iron-reducing microbes to inhibit the iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, especially organic matter together with some lime. Under the growth of the SRB and iron-reducing microbes, pH increased from acidic to nearly neutral, the Eh also decreased, and the metal, precipitated together with the microbial-generated sulfide, resulted in very low Cu in the residue pore solution. These results prove the inhibition of acid mine drainage directly in situ of the pyritic waste rocks by the promotion of the growth of SRB and iron-reducing microbes to compete with local iron and sulfur-oxidizing microbes, which can be used for the source control of AMD from the sulfidic waste rocks and the final remediation.

Keywords: acid mine drainage; bioremediation; heap bioleaching; Iron- and sulfur-oxidizing microbes; source control; sulfate-reducing bacteria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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