Abstract
Coal gangue (CG), one of the world’s largest industrial solid wastes produced during coal mining, is extremely difficult to be used owing to its combined contents of clay minerals and organic macromolecules. This study explored a novel process of degrading the harmful organic compounds in the CG into humic acid using a biological method characterized by scanning electron microscope–energy dispersive spectrometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and elemental analyzer. The results reveal that adding selected Bacillus sp. to the CG for 40 days can increase the humic acid content by ~ 17 times, reaching 17338.17 mg/kg, which is also the best level for promoting plant growth. FTIR and XPS spectra show that the organic compounds in the CG transforms primarily from C=C to C=O, COOH, and O–H groups, indicating that the organic compounds are gradually oxidized and activated, improving the humic acid concentration of soil. In addition, Bacillus sp. decreases pH and benzo[a]pyrene contents, and increases the content of available nutrients. After microbial degradation, coal gangue can be turned into ecological restoration materials.
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The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Key Research and Development Plan (No.2021BEE02019), the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Key tasks of industrial innovation (No.2021010401), and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No.2222079), the Foundation of Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAGM2022D06).
Funding
This work was supported by Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Key Research and Development Plan (No.2021BEE02019), the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Key tasks of industrial innovation (No.2021010401), and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No.2222079), the Foundation of Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAGM2022D06).
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Liu, C., Ma, S., Wang, X. et al. Biodegradation of organic compounds in the coal gangue by Bacillus sp. into humic acid. Biodegradation 34, 125–138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10007-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10007-0