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Immobilization of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans on Cotton Gauze for the Bioleaching of Waste Printed Circuit Boards

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Abstract

The bioleaching parameters of metal concentrates from waste printed circuit boards by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans immobilized on cotton gauze in a two-step reactor were investigated in this study. The results indicated that an average ferrous iron oxidation rate of 0.54 g/(L·h) and a ferrous iron oxidation ratio of 96.90 % were obtained after 12 h at aeration rate of 1 L/min in bio-oxidation reactor. After 96 h, the highest leaching efficiency of copper reached 91.68 % under the conditions of the content of the metal powder 12 g/L, the retention time 6 h, and the aeration rate 1 L/min. The bioleaching efficiency of copper could be above 91.12 % under repeated continuous batch operation. Meanwhile, 95.32 % of zinc, 90.32 % of magnesium, 86.31 % of aluminum, and 59.07 % of nickel were extracted after 96 h. All the findings suggested that the recovery of metal concentrates from waste printed circuit boards via immobilization of A. ferrooxidans on cotton gauze was feasible.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51178191) and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0166) for financial support.

Ethical Statement

I certify that this manuscript is original and has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration. The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full). The study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time. No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support my conclusions. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were our own. Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all authors. Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Hongyan Nie, Nengwu Zhu, Yanlan Cao, Zhiguo Xu & Pingxiao Wu

  2. The Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters of Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Nengwu Zhu & Pingxiao Wu

  3. The Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection and Eco-Remediation of Guangdong Regular Higher Education Institutions, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Nengwu Zhu & Pingxiao Wu

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  1. Hongyan Nie
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Correspondence to Nengwu Zhu.

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Nie, H., Zhu, N., Cao, Y. et al. Immobilization of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans on Cotton Gauze for the Bioleaching of Waste Printed Circuit Boards. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 177, 675–688 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-015-1772-2

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