TY - JOUR
T1 - Covellite (CuS) production from a real acid mine drainage treated with biogenic H2S
AU - Silva, Patricia Magalhães Pereira
AU - Lucheta, Adriano Reis
AU - Bitencourt, José Augusto Pires
AU - Do Carmo, Andre Luiz Vilaça
AU - Cuevas, Ivan Patricio Ñancucheo
AU - Siqueira, José Oswaldo
AU - de Oliveira, Guilherme Corrêa
AU - Alves, Joner Oliveira
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is an environmental problem associated with mining activities, which resulted from the exposure of sulfur bearing materials to oxygen and water. AMD is a pollution source due to its extreme acidity, high concentration of sulfate, and soluble metals. Biological AMD treatment is one alternative to couple environmental amelioration for valuable dissolved metals recovery, as a new source of raw materials. Covellite (CuS) particles were synthetized from an AMD sample collected in a Brazilian copper mine, after 48 and 96 h of exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced in a bioreactor containing acidophilic sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). The time of exposure affected the morphology, nucleation, and size of CuS crystals. CuS crystals synthetized after 96 h of H2S exposure showed better ordination as indicated by sharp and intense diffractograms obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the predominance of placoid sheets with hexagonal habit structure as observed by scanning electrons microscopy (SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry indicated a Cu:S molar ratio in agreement with CuS. Granulometric analysis demonstrated that 90% of CuS particles were less than 22 µm size. AMD biological treatment is a potential economical CuS recovery option for metallurgical process chain incorporation, or new industrial applications, since the alteration of synthesis conditions can produce different crystal forms with specific characteristics.
AB - Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is an environmental problem associated with mining activities, which resulted from the exposure of sulfur bearing materials to oxygen and water. AMD is a pollution source due to its extreme acidity, high concentration of sulfate, and soluble metals. Biological AMD treatment is one alternative to couple environmental amelioration for valuable dissolved metals recovery, as a new source of raw materials. Covellite (CuS) particles were synthetized from an AMD sample collected in a Brazilian copper mine, after 48 and 96 h of exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced in a bioreactor containing acidophilic sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). The time of exposure affected the morphology, nucleation, and size of CuS crystals. CuS crystals synthetized after 96 h of H2S exposure showed better ordination as indicated by sharp and intense diffractograms obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the predominance of placoid sheets with hexagonal habit structure as observed by scanning electrons microscopy (SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry indicated a Cu:S molar ratio in agreement with CuS. Granulometric analysis demonstrated that 90% of CuS particles were less than 22 µm size. AMD biological treatment is a potential economical CuS recovery option for metallurgical process chain incorporation, or new industrial applications, since the alteration of synthesis conditions can produce different crystal forms with specific characteristics.
KW - Acid mine drainage
KW - Biomining
KW - Biosulfidogenesis
KW - Copper
KW - Waste management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062328649&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/met9020206
DO - 10.3390/met9020206
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062328649
SN - 2075-4701
VL - 9
JO - Metals
JF - Metals
IS - 2
M1 - 206
ER -