Abstract
Bioleaching is an environment-friendly and low-investment process for the extraction of metals from flotation concentrate. Surfactants such as collectors and frothers are widely used in the flotation process. These chemical reagents may have inhibitory effects on the activity of microorganisms through a bioleaching process; however, there is no report indicating influences of reagents on the activity of microorganisms in the mixed culture which is mostly used in the industry. In this investigation, influences of typical flotation frothers (methyl isobutyl carbinol and pine oil) in different concentrations (0.01, 0.10, and 1.00 g/L) were examined on activates of bacteria in the mesophilic mixed culture (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans). For comparison purposes, experiments were repeated by pure cultures of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans in the same conditions. Results indicated that increasing the dosage of frothers has a negative correlation with bacteria activities while the mixed culture showed a lower sensitivity to the toxicity of these frothers in comparison with examined pure cultures. Outcomes showed the toxicity of Pine oil is lower than methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC). These results can be used for designing flotation separation procedures and to produce cleaner products for bio extraction of metals.
Highlights
Pyrometallurgy and high-pressure leaching are two typical methods used for the extraction of metals from concentrates of flotation separation [1,2,3]
This study investigated influences of two typical flotation frothers pine oil (PO) and methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) on a population of a traditional mixed mesophilic microorganisms culture (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans)
A comparison between the mixed and pure cultures during 21 days of monitoring indicated that bacteria concentration of the mixed culture is higher than pure ones
Summary
Pyrometallurgy and high-pressure leaching are two typical methods used for the extraction of metals from concentrates of flotation separation [1,2,3]. These methods have several disadvantages such as high investment and operation costs, environmental pollution (chemical reagents in the waste waters of hydrometallurgical plants and SO2 gas generation from pyrometallurgical plants), high energy consumption in the pyrometallurgy processes, high technology requirements for pyro/hydro-metallurgy process, and special expertise for system operators [4,5]. Where using a mixed culture with different microorganisms can lead to the cooperative effects and bioleaching may show a higher efficiency than pure cultures [34,35,36,37,38,39,40]
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