Biotic and Abiotic Sequestration of Selenium in Anoxic Coal Waste Rock

Abstract

Mobile selenium oxyanions ( $${\text{S}}{{\text{e}}^{{\text{VI}}}}{\text{O}}_{4}^{{2 - }}$$ and $${\text{S}}{{\text{e}}^{{\text{IV}}}}{\text{O}}_{3}^{{2 - }}$$ ) can be sequestered by biotic or abiotic reduction to non-mobile species or by adsorption to mineral surfaces. Microbial analyses and geochemical batch testing with samples collected from a coal waste rock dump in the Elk Valley, British Columbia, Canada were conducted to assess whether Se can be sequestered in anoxic, waste rock by these mechanisms. Bacteria that reduce Se(IV) and Se(VI) to Se(0) were isolated from the waste rock. Isolates that reduce Se(IV) to Se(0) were present in a water sample collected from an underlying rock drain. Three isolates were affiliated with Pseudomonas and Arthrobacter. One isolate was a putatively novel species. The production of Se(0) was confirmed by X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy of a red precipitate isolated from a broth media containing rock-drain water. No adsorption or reduction of Se(VI) was observed in anoxic, abiotic (sterile) batch tests conducted with waste rock and a 1.0 mg/L Se(VI) solution, whereas Se(IV) was adsorbed by the waste rock and subsequently reduced to Se(0) in abiotic batch tests with a 0.7 mg/L Se(IV) solution. In non-sterile batch tests using waste rock and rock-drain water (0.39 mg/L Se(VI)), Se(VI) was biologically reduced to Se(IV), which was subsequently removed from solution by a combination of bioreduction, adsorption, and possibly abiotic reduction. This study suggests that, under anoxic conditions, Se sequestration in waste rock may occur via biotic reduction of Se(VI) to Se(IV) followed by adsorption of Se(IV) and abiotic and biotic reduction of Se(IV) to Se(0).