Geochemical Modeling of Heavy Metal Removal from Acid Mine Drainage in an Ethanol-Supplemented Sulfate-Reducing Column Test.

A passive treatment process using sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) is known to be effective in removing heavy metals from acid mine drainage (AMD), though there has been little discussion of the mechanism involved to date. In this work, a sulfate-reducing column test was carried out using supplementary ethanol as an electron donor for microorganisms, and the reaction mechanism was examined using geochemical modeling and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analysis. The results showed that Cu was readily removed from the AMD on the top surface of the column (0-0.

Microbial community profiling of the Chinoike Jigoku ("Blood Pond Hell") hot spring in Beppu, Japan: isolation and characterization of Fe(III)-reducing Sulfolobus sp. strain GA1.

Chinoike Jigoku ("Blood Pond Hell") is located in the hot spring town of Beppu on the southern island of Kyushu in Japan, and is the site of a red-colored acidic geothermal pond. This study aimed to investigate the microbial population composition in this extremely acidic environment and to isolate/characterize acidophilic microorganism with metal-reducing ability. Initially, PCR (using bacteria- and archaea-specific primers) of environmental DNA samples detected the presence of bacteria, but not archaea.

Bioreduction and immobilization of hexavalent chromium by the extremely acidophilic Fe(III)-reducing bacterium Acidocella aromatica strain PFBC.

The extremely acidophilic, Fe(III)-reducing heterotrophic bacterium Acidocella aromatica strain PFBC was tested for its potential utility in bioreduction of highly toxic heavy metal, hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI). During its aerobic growth on fructose at pH 2.5, 20 µM Cr(VI) was readily reduced to Cr(III), achieving the final Cr(VI) concentration of 0.