Abstract
Arsenite (As(III)) was considered to be of great concern in acid mine drainage (AMD). A promising approach for cleaning up of arsenite from AMD is microbial oxidation of As(III) followed by adsorptions. However, there is virtually no research about the acidophilic bioreactor for As(III) oxidation so far. In this study, we formed a new biofilm bioreactor with a consortium of acidophilic As(III) oxidation bacteria. It is totally chemoautotrophic, with no need to add any carbon or other materials during the operations. It works well under pH 3.0–4.0, capable of oxidizing 1.0–20.0 mg/L As(III) in 3.0–4.5 h, respectively. A continuous operation of the bioreactor suggests that it is very stable and sustainable. Functional gene detection indicated that the biofilms possessed a unique diversity of As(III) oxidase genes. Taken together, this acidophilic bioreactor has great potential for industrial applications in the cleaning up of As(III) from AMD solution.
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This work was supported by the General Programs and the Foundations for Innovative Research Groups from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 41472219 and 41521001), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (grant no. CUGCJ1702).
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Xu, Y., Li, H. & Zeng, XC. A novel biofilm bioreactor derived from a consortium of acidophilic arsenite-oxidizing bacteria for the cleaning up of arsenite from acid mine drainage. Ecotoxicology 30, 1437–1445 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-020-02283-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-020-02283-4