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Attachment of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to pyrite in fresh and saline water and fitting to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms

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Abstract

Objective

This study aims to investigate the attachment of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to pyrite in two different environments: fresh and saline water (water with 35 g/L of NaCl or 0.6 M). Adsorption isotherms were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. Saline water is water with 35 g/L of NaCl (0.6 M), which is the concentration of NaCl in seawater. The use of raw seawater in mining is becoming relevant in leaching and flotation process. At the same time the use of microorganisms in both processes is gaining attention. For this reason, it is important to study the behavior of adherence of microorganisms to minerals in saline aqueous environments, similar to seawater.

Results

The bacteria showed a higher level of attachment to pyrite in fresh water than in saline water. The Langmuir model fitted better the experimental data obtained in fresh water than in saline water with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.85 and 0.61 for fresh and saline water, respectively.

Conclusions

This suggests that the bacteria tend to adhere more as a monolayer in fresh than in saline water in the early stage of adhesion.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Biohydrometallurgy Laboratory of Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, University of Chile for allowing the use of their installations and equipment.

Funding

This study was funded by Chilean National Commission for scientific and Technological Research (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT) through project number BMBF20150026.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Vicuña Mackenna 3939, Santiago, Chile

    Francisca San Martín

  2. Department of Mining Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Beauchef 850, Santiago, Chile

    Willy Kracht

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Universidad de Chile, Beauchef 851, Santiago, Chile

    Tomás Vargas

  4. Advanced Mining Technology Center, AMTC, Universidad de Chile, Tupper 2007, Santiago, Chile

    Willy Kracht & Tomás Vargas

Authors
  1. Francisca San Martín
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  2. Willy Kracht
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  3. Tomás Vargas
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Correspondence to Francisca San Martín.

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San Martín, F., Kracht, W. & Vargas, T. Attachment of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans to pyrite in fresh and saline water and fitting to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Biotechnol Lett 42, 957–964 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02842-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02842-z

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