• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.395-398
• /
• 2006

울산 삼산동 매립장 침출수의 수질정화 공정을 위해 새로운 여재인 AquaMate$^{(R)}$가 사용되었다. 본 실험에서는 AquaMat$^{(R)}$에 서식하고 있는 여러 미생물 중 우점종으로 여겨지는 3종의 미생물을 각각 분리하여 동정하였다. 이들 미생물은 그램 염색 결과 모두 간균 형태의 그램 음성으로 나타났으며, 각각 Agrobacterium radiobacter, Pseudomonas cepacia, Flavobacterium indologenes로 판명되었다. 이들,3종의 미생물은 모두 침출수에서는 잘 자라지 못하였으나 yeast extract같은 생장촉진물질의 존재 하에서는 침출수에서 빠른 생장속도를 보여주었다.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.30-44
• /
• 2011

This review describes the involvement of different microorganisms for the recovery of uranium from the ore. Mainly Acidithiobacillus forrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans are found to be the most widely used bacteria in the bioleaching process of uranium. The bioleaching of uranium generally follows indirect mechanism in which bacteria provide the ferric iron required to oxidize $U^{4+}$. Commercial applications of bioleaching have been incorporated for extracting valuable metals, due to its favorable process economics and reduced environmental problems compared to conventional metal recovery processes such as smelting. At present the uranium is recovered through main bioleaching techniques employed by heap, dump and in situ leaching. Process development has included recognition of the importance of aeration of bioheaps, and improvements in stirred tank reactor design and operation. Concurrently, knowledge of the key microorganisms involved in these processes has advanced, aided by advances in molecular biology to characterize microbial populations.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.369-378
• /
• 2010

Microorganisms are key-role player for stabilization of landfill sites. In order to evaluate the availability of T-RFLP(Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) for monitoring microbial community variations during stabilization of landfill sites, the phylogenic diversity of microbial community in the leachate from 4 different full-scale landfills was characterized by T-RFLP based on bacterial 16S rDNA. Main population of microbial community analyzed by T-RFLP was significantly similar with that of microbial community analyzed by clone library analysis. The results of T-RFLP analysis for main population of microbial community in the leachate from landfills with different landfill structures, waste types and landfill ages showed apparently different microbial diversity and structures. Therefore, long-term monitoring of microbial community in leachate from landfill sites by using T-RFLP is expected to be available for evaluation of landfill stability.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
• /
• 2002.04a
• /
• pp.400-402
• /
• 2002

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.15 no.6 s.74
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 2006

A study for recovering of copper and lead from electronic scraps has been carried out using a combination of bioleaching and solvent extraction. It was found that the citric acid generated by Aspergillus niger could be an imporant leaching agent acting in the solubilization of copper, iron, lead and tin from the electronic scrap. Copper could be selectively extracted by 10% LIX84 from the leaching solution and it recoved 99.9% of metallic copper by electrowinning process. Tin and iron were extracted from the remaining solution by 10% Alamine336 and stripped by NaCl solution. Finally, tin could be recovered as a metallic precipitates from the mixed solution of tin and iron by cementation with iron powder.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.30-40
• /
• 2021

The present study investigates the bioleaching efficiencies of arsenic via contact and non-contact mechanisms. The attachment of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans was restricted by a partition system comprising a semi-permeable membrane with a molecular weight cutoff of 12-14 kDa. The results were compared for two arsenic concentrations in the system (1.0% and 0.5% w/v) to maintain a homogeneous system. The overall bacterial performance was monitored by comparing total arsenic and iron concentrations, Fe ion speciation, pH, and solution redox potentials in flask bioleaching experiments over a period of 10 d. Our results indicated that bacterial attachment could increase arsenic extraction efficiency from 20.0% to 44.9% at 1.0 % solid concentrations. These findings suggest that the bacterial contact mechanism greatly influences arsenic bioleaching from mine tailings. Therefore, systems involving two-step or non-contact bioleaching are less effective than those involving one-step or contact bioleaching for the efficient extraction of arsenic from mine tailings.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.357-366
• /
• 2007

Microorganisms participate in a variety of geochemical processes such as weathering and formation of minerals, leaching of precious metals from minerals, and cycling of organic matter The objective of this study was to investigate biogeochemical processes of iron leaching from magnetite ore by iron-reducing bacteria isolated from intertidal flat sediments, southwestern part of Korea. Microbial iron leaching experiments were performed using magnetite ore, Shinyemi magnetite ore, in well-defined media with and without bacteria at room temperature for a month. Water soluble Fe and Mn during the leaching experiments were determined by ICP analysis of bioleached samples, and the resulting precipitated solids were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The extent of iron leaching from magnetite in the aerobic conditions (Fe = 15 mg/L and Mn = 3.41 mg/L) was lower than that in the anaerobic environments (Fe = 32.8 mg/L and Mn = 5.23 mg/L). The medium pH typically decreased from 8.3 to 7.2 during a month incubation. The Eh of the initial medium decreased from +144.9 mV to -331.7 mV in aerobic environments and from -2.3 mV to -494.6 mV in anaerobic environments upon incubation with the metal reducing microorganisms. The decrease in pH is due to glucose fermentation producing organic acids and $CO_2$. The ability of bacteria to leach soluble iron from crystalline magnetite could have significant implications for biogeochemical processes in sediments where Fe(III) in magnetite represents the largest pool of electron acceptor as well as to use as a novel biotechnology for leaching precious and heavy metals from raw materials.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.14 no.5 s.67
• /
• pp.24-31
• /
• 2005

In order to recover valuable metals from fine-grained electronic waste, bioleaching of Cu, Zn, Al, Co, Ni, Fe, Sn and Pb were carried out using Aspergillus niger as a leaching microorganism in a shaking flask. Aspergillus niger was able to grow in the presence of electronic scrap. The formation of organic acids(citric and oxalic acid) from Aspergillus niger caused the mobilization of metals from waste electronic scrap. In a preliminary study, in order to obtain the data on the leaching of Cu, Zn, Al, Fe, Co and Ni from electronic scrap, chemical leaching using organic acid(Citric acid and Oxalic acid) was accomplished. At the electronic scrap concentration of 50 g/L, Aspergillus niger were able to leach more than 95% of the available Cu, Co. But Al, Zn, Pb and Sn were leached about 15-35%. Ni and Fe were detected in the leachate less than 10%.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.126-131
• /
• 1998

Reduction of hexavalent chromium to its trivalent form by leachate microorganisms was studied in batch and bench-scale continuous stirred tank reactor. The inoculum was a culture of microorganisms in leachate and capable of providing up to 90% chromate reduction during 72 h batch assay with $20mg\;Cr(VI)\;L^{-1}$ in minimal media containing different levels of leachate (10 to 60%) and glucose (50 to 200 mM). Addition of glucose increased the efficiency of chromate reduction, but adverse effect was observed with increase of leachate probably due to the competitive inhibition between chromate and sulfate ions. The continuous culture experiment was conducted for 124 days using synthetic feed containing different levels of chromate (5 to $65mg\;L^{-1}$) at room temperature. With a hydraulic retention time of 36 h, chromate reduction efficiency was mostly 100% when Cr(VI) concentrations in the reactor were in the range of 5 to $50mg\;L^{-1}$ Specific rate of Cr(VI) removal was calculated as $3.492mg\;g^{-1}\;protein\;h^{-1}$ during the period of 101~124 days from the start-up which showed 81.2% of average reduction efficiency. The results indicate the potential application of using leachate microorganisms for detoxification of hexavalent chromium in various chromium-contaminated wastewater from landfill or tannery sites.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.30-35
• /
• 2008

Mixed acidophilic bacteria were approached for leaching of cobalt and lithium from wastes of lithium ion battery industries. The growth substrates for the mixed mesophilic bacteria are elemental sulfur and ferrous ion. Bioleaching of the metal was due to the protonic action of sulfate ion on the metals present in the waste. It was investigated that bioleaching of cobalt was faster than lithium. Bacterial action could leach out about 80 % of cobalt and 20 % of lithium from the solid wastes within 12 days of the experimental period. Higher solid/liquid ratio was found to be detrimental for bacterial growth due to the toxic nature of the metals. At high elemental sulfur concentration, the sulfur powder was observed to be in undissolved form and hence the leaching rate also decreased with increase of sulfur amount.