Abstract
Biotechnological processes are important alternatives for water recycling both in hydrometallurgical and mineral processing operations and this paper is focused on two of such technologies: (i) manganese bioremediation and (ii) sulphate reduction. While high concentrations are related to hydrometallurgical operations or AMD generation, manganese is one of the most difficult metals to remove from wastewaters. It is demonstrated herein that a bacterial consortium enriched from a mine water was able to remove 99.7% Mn2+ from a solution containing 50 mg/L. Molecular studies revealed Stenotrophomonas, Bacillus and Lysinibacillus genera in the sample. Cell metabolism resulted in a pH increase and catalysed chemical Mn2+ oxidation. Subsequently, sulphate reduction by sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) was addressed. A fluidized bed reactor (FBR), in which there was immobilized biomass along with fluidization enabled a high bacterial population (>109 cells/mL) in the bioreactor and thus a large sulphate reduction efficiency (97%) for a specific sulphate reducing rate of 0.186 ± 0.015 g SO −24 /gVSS.d.
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Funding provided by Vale and the agencies FINEP, CAPES, CNPq and FAPEMIG are acknowledged.
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© 2017 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
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Barbosa, N.R., Bertolino, S.M., Cota, R.G.S., Leão, V.A. (2017). Biotechnologies for Wastewater Treatment in the Mineral Industry. In: Meyers, M., et al. Proceedings of the 3rd Pan American Materials Congress. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52132-9_48
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