Biogenic Metal Compounds for Hazardous Waste Remediation

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 9250

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Complutense University of Madrid, Av. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: bioleaching; biosorption; bioremediationof toxic metals; biosynthesis of metallic nanoparticles
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Complutense University of Madrid, Av. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: hydrometallurgy; biohydrometalurgy; biosorption; biosynthesis of nanoparticles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water pollution is one of the most important environmental challenges of the 21st century. Many industries produce large volumes of effluents containing pollutants that discharge into the environment, threatening biodiversity and human life. The treatment of these effluents is attracting growing interest because of environmental and sanitary issues, and increasingly restrictive regulations. However, the high cost of conventional decontamination technologies is a problem for the industry. A suitable alternative could be the use of biogenic metal compounds with adsorptive, oxidizing or reducing properties appropriated for hazardous waste removal. Additionally, different reactive minerals formed during microbial metal transformations can also contribute to reduce organic contaminants, such as nitroaromatic and chlorinated organic compounds, and inorganic compounds, such as U(VI) and Cr(VI).

The Special Issue will be devoted to collecting papers on recent advances on the application of remediation technologies in advanced water treatment using biogenic metals. These include studies reporting the precipitation of biogenic manganese and iron species for adsorption or dehalogenation, and the microbial reduction of valuable metals, such as palladium, platinum, selenium or tellurium.

Dr. Laura Castro
Prof. Dr. Maria Luisa Blázquez
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • remediation
  • biogenic nanoparticles
  • biomineralization
  • heavy metal adsorption
  • emerging pollutants

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2109 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Arsenic Sequestration in Biogenic Pyrite from Contaminated Groundwater: Insights from Field and Laboratory Studies
by Alicia Fischer, James Saunders, Sara Speetjens, Justin Marks, Jim Redwine, Stephanie R. Rogers, Ann S. Ojeda, Md Mahfujur Rahman, Zeki M. Billor and Ming-Kuo Lee
Minerals 2021, 11(5), 537; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11050537 - 19 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3161
Abstract
Pumping groundwater from arsenic (As)-contaminated aquifers exposes millions of people, especially those in developing countries, to high doses of the toxic contaminant. Previous studies have investigated cost-effective techniques to remove groundwater arsenic by stimulating sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to form biogenic arsenian pyrite. This [...] Read more.
Pumping groundwater from arsenic (As)-contaminated aquifers exposes millions of people, especially those in developing countries, to high doses of the toxic contaminant. Previous studies have investigated cost-effective techniques to remove groundwater arsenic by stimulating sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to form biogenic arsenian pyrite. This study intends to improve upon these past methods to demonstrate the effectiveness of SRB arsenic remediation at an industrial site in Florida. This study developed a ferrous sulfate and molasses mixture to sequester groundwater arsenic in arsenian pyrite over nine months. The optimal dosage of the remediating mixture consisted of 5 kg of ferrous sulfate, ~27 kg (60 lbs) of molasses, and ~1 kg (2 lbs) of fertilizer per 3785.4 L (1000 gallons) of water. The remediating mixture was injected into 11 wells hydrologically upgradient of the arsenic plume in an attempt to obtain full-scale remediation. Groundwater samples and precipitated biominerals were collected from June 2018 to March 2019. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), electron microprobe (EMP), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses determined that As has been sequestered mainly in the form of arsenian pyrite, which rapidly precipitated as euhedral crystals and spherical aggregates (framboids) 1–30 μm in diameter within two weeks of the injection. The analyses confirmed that the remediating mixture and injection scheme reduced As concentrations to near or below the site’s clean-up standard of 0.05 mg/L over the nine months. Moreover, the arsenian pyrite contained 0.03–0.89 weight percentage (wt%) of sequestered arsenic, with >80% of groundwater arsenic removed by SRB biomineralization. Considering these promising findings, the study is close to optimizing an affordable procedure for sequestrating dissolved As in industry settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogenic Metal Compounds for Hazardous Waste Remediation)
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13 pages, 3288 KiB  
Article
Batch and Continuous Chromate and Zinc Sorption from Electroplating Effluents Using Biogenic Iron Precipitates
by Laura Castro, Fabiana Rocha, Jesús Ángel Muñoz, Felisa González and María Luisa Blázquez
Minerals 2021, 11(4), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11040349 - 26 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2232
Abstract
Nanoparticles of iron precipitates produced by a microbial consortium are a suitable adsorbent for metal removal from electroplating industry wastewaters. Biogenic iron precipitates were utilized as adsorbents for chromate and zinc in batch conditions. Furthermore, the iron precipitates were embedded in alginate beads [...] Read more.
Nanoparticles of iron precipitates produced by a microbial consortium are a suitable adsorbent for metal removal from electroplating industry wastewaters. Biogenic iron precipitates were utilized as adsorbents for chromate and zinc in batch conditions. Furthermore, the iron precipitates were embedded in alginate beads for metal removal in fixed-bed columns, and their performance was evaluated in a continuous system by varying different operational parameters such as flow rate, bed height, and feeding system (down- and up-flows). The influence of different adsorption variables in the saturation time, the amount of adsorbed potentially toxic metals, and the column performance was investigated, and the shape of the breakthrough curves was analyzed. The optimal column performance was achieved by increasing bed height and by decreasing feed flow rate and inlet metal concentration. The up-flow system significantly improved the metal uptake, avoiding the preferential flow channels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogenic Metal Compounds for Hazardous Waste Remediation)
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13 pages, 4297 KiB  
Article
Preferential Elimination of Ba2+ through Irreversible Biogenic Manganese Oxide Sequestration
by Yukinori Tani, Satomi Kakinuma, Jianing Chang, Kazuya Tanaka and Naoyuki Miyata
Minerals 2021, 11(1), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11010053 - 7 Jan 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3047
Abstract
Biogenic manganese oxides (BMOs) formed in a culture of the Mn(II)-oxidizing fungus Acremonium strictum strain KR21-2 are known to retain enzymatic Mn(II) oxidation activity. Consequently, these are increasingly attracting attention as a substrate for eliminating toxic elements from contaminated wastewaters. In this study, [...] Read more.
Biogenic manganese oxides (BMOs) formed in a culture of the Mn(II)-oxidizing fungus Acremonium strictum strain KR21-2 are known to retain enzymatic Mn(II) oxidation activity. Consequently, these are increasingly attracting attention as a substrate for eliminating toxic elements from contaminated wastewaters. In this study, we examined the Ba2+ sequestration potential of enzymatically active BMOs with and without exogenous Mn2+. The BMOs readily oxidized exogenous Mn2+ to produce another BMO phase, and subsequently sequestered Ba2+ at a pH of 7.0, with irreversible Ba2+ sequestration as the dominant pathway. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses demonstrated alteration from turbostratic to tightly stacked birnessite through possible Ba2+ incorporation into the interlayer. The irreversible sequestration of Sr2+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ was insignificant, and the turbostratic birnessite structure was preserved. Results from competitive sequestration experiments revealed that the BMOs favored Ba2+ over Sr2+, Ca2+, and Mg2+. These results explain the preferential accumulation of Ba2+ in natural Mn oxide phases produced by microbes under circumneutral environmental conditions. These findings highlight the potential for applying enzymatically active BMOs for eliminating Ba2+ from contaminated wastewaters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biogenic Metal Compounds for Hazardous Waste Remediation)
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