Improved chalcopyrite bioleaching by Acidithiobacillus sp. via direct step-wise regulation of microbial community structure
Shoushuai Feng, Hailin Yang, Wu Wang
The Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi 214122, People’s Republic of China.
Abstract
A direct step-wise regulation strategy of microbial community structure was developed for improving chalcopyrite bioleaching by Acidithiobacillus sp. Specially, the initial microbial proportion between Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans was controlled at 3:1 with additional 2 g/L Fe2+ for faster initiating iron metabolism. A. thiooxidans biomass was fed via a step-wise strategy (8–12th d) with the microbial proportion 1:1 for balancing community structure and promoting sulfur metabolism in the stationary phase. A. thiooxidans proportion was further improved via another step-wise feeding strategy (14–18th d) with the microbial proportion 1:2 for enhancing sulfur metabolism and weakening jarosite passivation in the later phase. With the community structure-shift control strategy, biochemical reaction was directly regulated for creating a better balance in different phases. Moreover, the final copper ion was increased from 57.1 to 93.2 mg/L, with the productivity 2.33 mg/(L d). The novel strategy may be valuable in optimization of similar bioleaching process.
Keywords: Chalcopyrite bioleaching; Acidithiobacillus; Iron/sulfur metabolism; Microbial community regulation.
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