Biosorption has been considered a promising technology for the treatment of industrial effluents containing heavy metals. However, the development of a cost-effective technique for biomass ...immobilization is essential for successful application of biosorption in industrial processes. In this study, a new method of reversible encapsulation of the highly pigmented biomass from Aspergillus nidulans mutant using semipermeable cellulose membrane was developed and the efficiency of the encapsulated biosorbent in the removal and recovery of copper ions was evaluated. Data analysis showed that the pseudo-second-order model better described copper adsorption by encapsulated biosorbent and a good correlation (r2 > 0.96) to the Langmuir isotherm was obtained. The maximum biosorption capacities for the encapsulated biosorbents were higher (333.5 and 116.1 mg g-1 for EB10 and EB30, respectively) than that for free biomass (92.0 mg g-1). SEM-EDXS and FT-IR analysis revealed that several functional groups on fungal biomass were involved in copper adsorption through ion-exchange mechanism. Sorption/desorption experiments showed that the metal recovery efficiency by encapsulated biosorbent remained constant at approximately 70% during five biosorption/desorption cycles. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the new encapsulation method of the fungal biomass using a semipermeable cellulose membrane is efficient for heavy metal ion removal and recovery from aqueous solutions in multiple adsorption-desorption cycles. In addition, this reversible encapsulation method has great potential for application in the treatment of heavy metal contaminated industrial effluents due to its low cost, the possibility of recovering adsorbed ions and the reuse of biosorbent in consecutive biosorption/desorption cycles with high efficiency of metal removal and recovery.
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•Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans presented better acid production than thermophilic archeas.•Two-step bioleaching prevents possible inhibition caused by acid consumption.•Two step ...bioleaching reached 98% neodymium extraction.•Two step bioleaching extracted 60% of all rare earth from phosphogypsum.•Biogenic acid showed an extraction yield similar to commercial acid.
Industrial production of sulfuric acid requires a high amount of energy and in remote regions such as mineral extraction pits, in situ production becomes unfeasible. This work proposes an alternative for the production of H2SO4 that uses sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. The production capacity of this acid in a mesophilic (30 °C) and a thermophilic (65 °C) condition was studied by three collected consortia from acid mine drainage and compared with Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. It was found that At. thiooxidans presented higher sulfuric acid production than the consortia collected and, therefore, it was selected for the bioleaching of rare earths elements (REEs) from phosphogypsum (PG). Due to the acid consumption of phosphogypsum, the two-step bioleaching condition resulted in higher REEs extraction (98% Nd, 60% Ce, 58% La, and 62% Y) when compared to one-step bioleaching (28% Nd, 17% Ce, 18% La, and 30% Y). The process was performed on a reactor scale and it was possible to extract 55.0% of the REEs contained in 300 g of waste and concentrate them into 0.922 g of rare earth oxalates, with a final yield of 52.5%, showing that the proposed bioprocess has potential application even in remote areas due to its low energy consumption when compared to traditional processes.
The use of biotechnology to explore low-grade ore deposits and mining tailings is one of the most promising alternatives to reduce environmental impacts and costs of copper extraction. However, such ...technology still depends on improvements to be fully applied in Brazil under industrial scale. In this way, the bioleaching, by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, in columns and stirred reactors were evaluated regarding to copper extraction of a mineral sulfide and a weathered ore from the Brazilian Amazon region. Samples (granulometry of 2.0/4.75 mm) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry and scanning electrons microscopy (SEM). The pH and Oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) were daily monitored and leachate samples were collected for copper extraction determination by EDXRF. After 47 days, the columns bioleaching efficiency was 1% (1298 mg Cu·L−1) and 0.95% (985 mg Cu·L−1) for 2.00/4.75 mm sulfide ore, respectively, whereas the stirred reactors bioleaching resulted in 4% (348 mg Cu·L−1) for the mineral sulfide and 47% (295.5 mg Cu·L−1) for the weathered ore.
In this study, an economical and sustainable bio-hydrometallurgical route was evaluated for the recovery of aluminum from low-grade bauxite using the marine-derived fungus Aspergillus niger. Firstly, ...four different solid media were tested for high-yield spore production. Organic acid production capacity by A. niger was also evaluated in a medium supplemented with glucose or low-cost molasses as a carbon source using fungal spores or pellets as inoculum. The concentrations of the produced organic acids were determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that oat-agar can be used as an inexpensive solid medium for greater fungal sporulation, while the liquid medium supplemented with molasses as a low-cost carbon source can be used for higher organic acids production. Among the conditions tested, A. niger spore inoculum showed the highest yield of the total produced organic acids (122.40 g L−1 or 81.6% (grams of sucrose used per grams of total acid) and also the highest (1.02 ± 0.02 g L−1 h−1) acids production rate using molasses as an inexpensive carbon source. This cultivation condition was selected for the bioleaching studies with low-grade bauxite. Among the three different bioleaching methods tested, the direct two-steps bioleaching process resulted in higher aluminum leaching (91.2%) compared to indirect (84.8%) and direct one-step (82.8%) bioleaching process. According to the results obtained using marine-derived A. niger under the established culture conditions, proved to be an eco-friendly and cost-effective way for aluminum recovery from low-grade bauxite ore and has the potential to be adopted on a pilot scale.
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•Bio-hydrometallurgical route was studied for the recovery of aluminum from bauxite.•Oat-agar was selected as the best solid growth medium for the spore production.•Molasses was used as a carbon substrate for the production of fungal metabolites.•A. niger was successfully used to degrade the bauxite ore to liberate aluminum.•The direct two-steps bioleaching process showed the highest (91.2%) Al leaching.
Filamentous fungi have been proved to have a pronounced capability to recover metals from mineral ores. However, the metal recovery yield is reduced due to toxic effects triggered by various heavy ...metals present in the ore. The current study highlights the fungal adaptations to the toxic effects of metals at higher pulp densities for the enhanced bio-recovery of aluminum from low-grade bauxite. In the previous studies, a drastic decrease in the aluminum dissolution was observed when the bauxite pulp density was increased from 1 to 10% (w/v) due to the high metal toxicity and low tolerance of
Aspergillus niger
and
Penicillium simplicissium
to heavy metals
.
These fungi were adapted in order to increase heavy metal tolerance of these fungal strains and also to get maximum Al dissolution. A novel approach was employed for the adaptation of fungal strains using a liquid growth medium containing 5% bauxite pulp density supplemented with molasses as an energy source. The mycelia of adapted strains were harvested and subsequently cultured in a low-cost oat-agar medium. Batch experiments were performed to compare the aluminum leaching efficiencies in the direct one-step and the direct two-step bioleaching processes. FE-SEM analysis revealed the direct destructive and corrosive action by the bauxite-tolerant strains due to the extension and penetration of the vegetative mycelium filaments into the bauxite matrix. XRD analysis of the bioleached bauxite samples showed a considerable decline in oxide minerals such as corundum and gibbsite. Results showed a high amount of total Al (≥ 98%) was successfully bioleached and solubilized from low-grade bauxite by the adapted fungal strains grown in the presence of 5% pulp density and molasses as a low-cost substrate.
Graphical abstract
Rice and coffee husks (raw and chemically activated) are examined as potential biosorption materials regarding their capacity to remove U (total),
241
Am, and
137
Cs. The physical parameters ...evaluated were the morphological characteristics of the biomass, real and apparent density, and surface area. Contact times for the batch experiments were 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 h, and the concentrations tested ranged between 10% of the total concentration and the radioactive waste itself without any dilution. The results were evaluated by experimental sorption capacity, ternary isotherm, and kinetics models. The kinetics results showed that equilibrium was reached after 2 h for all biomass. Raw coffee husk showed the best adsorption results in terms of maximum capacity (
q
max
) for all three radionuclides, which were 1.96, 39.4 × 10
−6
, and 46.6 × 10
−9
mg g
−1
for U, Am, and Cs, respectively. The biosorption process for the raw and activated rice husks was best represented by the Langmuir ternary isotherm model with two sites. For the coffee husk, in the raw and activated states, the biosorption process was best described by the modified Jain and Snoeyink ternary model. These results suggest that biosorption with these biomaterials can be applied in the treatment of liquid organic radioactive waste containing mainly uranium and americium.
In order to find a sustainable and low-cost alternative route to the traditional recovery of aluminum, the filamentous fungus
Penicillium simplicissimum
was evaluated for aluminum recovery from ...low-grade bauxite ore. The oat-agar medium was carefully chosen as the foremost solid medium for fungal sporulation due to lower cost, ease in preparation, and high spore production in a short incubation time. To examine the acid production capability in submerged fermentation,
P. simplicissimum
was inoculated in a medium augmented with glucose and molasses as an energy source. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was used for the determination of the produced organic acids. Three different bioleaching approaches were evaluated using 1% bauxite pulp density. The culture containing
P. simplicissimum
spores grown in a medium supplemented with molasses leached 86.6% Al in the direct two steps on the fifth day, 56.5% in the direct one step on the fourth day, and 71.7% in the indirect bioleaching on the fourth day, while in the controlled sterile flasks, Al leaching was almost negligible. A maximal amount of Al was leached by the fungal strains using low-cost molasses as a substrate.
Biogas is a renewable energy source that can be used to produce heat and energy, replacing fossil fuels. The main factor limiting the use of biogas is contaminants in its composition which H2S is the ...most important due to corrosion and environmental problems. A promising technology to remove this contaminant from biogas is the biotrickling filters and the selection of inexpensive and durable supports is an important step for the operation. This work has studied different support materials, for microorganisms immobilization, as Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polyethylene Terephtalate (PET), Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon®) comparing to open pore polyurethane foam (OPP) each one packed in biotrickling filters to evaluate the consumption of thiosulfate by chemolitotrofic microorganisms. The kinetics of substrate consumption in different cycles for each support were distinct suggesting different microbial colonization. The materials tested have presented results very similar polyurethane foam, which has already known by its efficiency on biogas desulfurization, unless Teflon that has showed a divergent result with the increase of the substrate concentration in the system.
Biosorption has been considered a promising technology for the treatment of industrial effluents containing heavy metals. However, the development of a cost-effective technique for biomass ...immobilization is essential for successful application of biosorption in industrial processes. In this study, a new method of reversible encapsulation of the highly pigmented biomass from Aspergillus nidulans mutant using semipermeable cellulose membrane was developed and the efficiency of the encapsulated biosorbent in the removal and recovery of copper ions was evaluated. Data analysis showed that the pseudo-second-order model better described copper adsorption by encapsulated biosorbent and a good correlation (r2 > 0.96) to the Langmuir isotherm was obtained. The maximum biosorption capacities for the encapsulated biosorbents were higher (333.5 and 116.1 mg g-1 for EB10 and EB30, respectively) than that for free biomass (92.0 mg g-1). SEM-EDXS and FT-IR analysis revealed that several functional groups on fungal biomass were involved in copper adsorption through ion-exchange mechanism. Sorption/desorption experiments showed that the metal recovery efficiency by encapsulated biosorbent remained constant at approximately 70% during five biosorption/desorption cycles. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the new encapsulation method of the fungal biomass using a semipermeable cellulose membrane is efficient for heavy metal ion removal and recovery from aqueous solutions in multiple adsorption-desorption cycles. In addition, this reversible encapsulation method has great potential for application in the treatment of heavy metal contaminated industrial effluents due to its low cost, the possibility of recovering adsorbed ions and the reuse of biosorbent in consecutive biosorption/desorption cycles with high efficiency of metal removal and recovery.
The aim of this work was to study the best biotechnology route for the pretreatment of the gold ore in order to reduce cyanide consumption during the conventional cyanidation and increasing the gold ...recovery. For this purpose, biological tests have been investigated at laboratory scale on a gold ore sample coming from Estado do Amapá, Brazil (90 g/ton). Bacterial cultures utilized in the biological tests of 20 days consisted of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans LR and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans FG01. The biooxidated samples were submitted to cyanidation tests for gold recovery and tests of consumption of cyanide. Experimental studies demonstrated that after 24h leaching time by direct cyanidation, the gold recovery was 93% (32 mg/L) with a cyanide consumption of 2,84 kg.t-1, while the best gold extraction between biooxidated samples was from bioreactor R2 with 87% (30 mg/L), and the cyanide consumption of 2,64 kg.t-1. Experimental results have shown the technical feasibility of the biooxidative prior to convencional leaching for reducing the consumption of reagent cyanide
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