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Lab-scale evaluation of the microbial bioremediation of Cr(VI): contributions of biosorption, bioreduction, and biomineralization

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Abstract

Bioremediation of Cr(VI) by microorganisms has attracted immense research interests. There are three different mechanisms for bioremediation of Cr(VI): biosorption, bioreduction, and biomineralization. Identifying the relative contributions of these different mechanisms to Cr(VI) bioremediation can provide valuable information to enhance the final result. This article explores the corresponding contributions of different mechanisms in the Cr(VI) bioremediation process. To obtain a deeper understanding of each bioremediation mechanism, the corresponding precipitation products were analyzed via different methods. Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) analysis showed that Cr(VI) was adsorbed by functional groups in EPS to form a chelate compound. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis determined that the stable Cr(III) compounds and mineral crystals which contain chromium gradually formed during the bioremediation process. High-throughput sequencing technology was applied to monitor microbial community succession. The results showed that the total removal rate of Cr(VI) reached 77.64% in 56 days in 100 mg/L Cr(VI). Bioreduction was the major contributor to the final result, followed by biosorption and biomineralization; their proportions are 69.61%, 19.16%, and 11.23%, respectively. Besides, the high-throughput sequencing data indicated that reductive microorganisms were the dominant flora and that the relative abundance of different reductive microorganism types changes significantly. This work has clarified the contributions of different mechanisms during Cr(VI) bioremediation process and provided a new enhancement strategy for Cr(VI) bioremediation.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We thank National Engineering Laboratory of Biohydrometallurgy, GRINM Group Corporation Limited, China, for their support during the experiments.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51974279, U1402234 and 41573074); National Key Research and Development Project of China (2018YFC1802702, 2018YFC1801803, 2019YFC1805903).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory of Biohydrometallurgy, GRINM Group Corporation Limited, Beijing, 100088, China

    Xiao Yan, Xingyu Liu, Mingjiang Zhang, Jianlei Wang, Juan Zhong, Daozhi Ma, Chuiyun Tang & Xuewu Hu

  2. GRINM Resources and Environment Tech. Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100088, China

    Xiao Yan, Xingyu Liu, Mingjiang Zhang, Jianlei Wang, Juan Zhong, Daozhi Ma, Chuiyun Tang & Xuewu Hu

  3. General Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals, Beijing, 100088, China

    Xiao Yan, Juan Zhong, Daozhi Ma, Chuiyun Tang & Xuewu Hu

  4. GRIMAT Engineering Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing, 101407, China

    Xingyu Liu

  5. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xuewu Hu

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  1. Xiao Yan
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  2. Xingyu Liu
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  3. Mingjiang Zhang
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  5. Juan Zhong
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Xiao Yan, Xingyu Liu, Mingjiang Zhang, Jianlei Wang, and Xuewu Hu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xiao Yan and Jianlei Wang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xingyu Liu.

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Highlights

• 77.64% removal rate of Cr(VI) was achieved by the reductive microbes (Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Ochrobactrum sp., Bacillus megaterium strain, and Pseudomonas putida).

• The contribution of biosorption, bioreduction, and biomineralization in the total removal rate of Cr(VI) was calculated; the main contributor was bioreduction, followed by biosorption and biomineralization, accounting for 69.61, 19.16, and 11.23%, respectively.

• The FTIR, XPS, XRD, and TEM-EDS analysis of precipitation products confirmed the corresponding bioremediation mechanisms.

• VThe microbial community succession indicated that the relative abundance of different microbial species changed greatly, but the reductive microbial species was still dominant microorganisms, suggesting the reductive microbial species were more stable during the bioremediation process.

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Yan, X., Liu, X., Zhang, M. et al. Lab-scale evaluation of the microbial bioremediation of Cr(VI): contributions of biosorption, bioreduction, and biomineralization. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 22359–22371 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11852-3

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