Treatment of simulated wastewater from in situ leaching uranium mining by
zerovalent iron and sulfate reducing bacteria
zerovalent iron and sulfate reducing bacteria
(1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China;
2. Key Laboratory of Functional Organometallic Materials of Hunan Province,
Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang 421008, China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China;
2. Key Laboratory of Functional Organometallic Materials of Hunan Province,
Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang 421008, China)
Abstract: Batch and column experiments were conducted to determine whether zerovalent iron (ZVI) and sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) can function synergistically and accelerate pollutant removal. Batch experiments suggest that combining ZVI with SRB can enhance the removal of U(Ⅵ) synergistically. The removal rate of U(Ⅵ) in the ZVI+SRB combining system is obviously higher than the total rate of ZVI system and SRB system with a difference of 13.4% at t=2 h and 29.9% at t=4 h. Column experiments indicate that the reactor filled with both ZVI and SRB biofilms is of better performance than the SRB bioreactor in wastewater basification, desulfurization and U(Ⅵ) fixation. The results imply that the ZVI+SRB permeable reactive barrier may be a promising method for treating subsurface uranium contamination.
Key words: zerovalent iron (ZVI); sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB); uranium; sulfate; wastewater; basification