Abstract
Tannery sludge that has accumulated in the natural environment of a tannery industrial zone for a long time contains large amounts of toxic heavy metal elements such as Cr, which has a serious impact on the surrounding environment. This study used indigenous acidophilic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from local tannery wastewater treatment plants to examine the effects of bioleaching on the removal of heavy metals in local tannery sludge accumulated in the natural environment. The effect of pre-oxygenation on bioleaching was investigated, and trends of sludge dewaterability during bioleaching and changes in the total amount of heavy metals, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) during bioleaching were determined. Changes in the contents of different bound forms of heavy metals in tannery yard sludge during the bioleaching process were revealed. The experimental results showed that pre-oxygenation treatment of tannery yard sludge can shorten the bioleaching period (by at least 4 days) and improve the removal efficiency of all heavy metals. To ensure sludge dewaterability, the pH of the leaching system at the end of the bioleaching must not be lower than 1.67. The main components of heavy metals were stable in the tannery yard sludge, which critically affected the final removal efficiency of all heavy metals. The dissolution process of heavy metals showed that the morphology of heavy metals changed from stable to unstable forms in the bioleaching process, further dissolving into the liquid phase to be removed. In this experiment, the removal efficiency of all heavy metals in the tannery yard sludge was higher than 88.49%, and these heavy metals had good stability in morphology (the stable forms accounted for more than 87% of the total). In addition, the TN content in the remaining sludge was 27.9 g/kg, which is much higher than fertilizer TN requirements, indicating a high potential for resource utilization. Therefore, the method of bioleaching to remove heavy metals in tannery yard sludge for reuse is worthy of in-depth study and promotion.
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Funding
This study was supported by the National Key R&D Projects of China (2018YFC1802602), the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1612442), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41663009), the high-level innovative talents in Guizhou ([2020]6002), and the Technology R&D Projects of Guohui Group–GZU (20180726).
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HL and YW contributed to the conception of the study; HL, KY, LL, QL, and ML performed the experiments. HL contributed substantially to the analysis and manuscript preparation. YL and WL helped perform the analysis and participated in constructive discussions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Liu, H., Yang, K., Luo, L. et al. Study on bioleaching of heavy metals and resource potential from tannery yard sludge. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 38867–38879 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13425-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13425-4