Compared with the traditional pyrometallurgical process, copper bioleaching has distinctive advantages of high efficiency and lower cost, enabling efficiently extracts of valuable metal resources from copper sulfides....Compared with the traditional pyrometallurgical process, copper bioleaching has distinctive advantages of high efficiency and lower cost, enabling efficiently extracts of valuable metal resources from copper sulfides. Moreover, during long-term industrial applications of bioleaching, many regulatory enhancements and technological methods are used to accelerate the interfacial reactions. With advances in microbial genetic and sequencing technologies, bacterial communities and their mechanisms in bioleaching systems have been revealed gradually. The bacterial proliferation and dissolution of sulfide ores by a bacterial community depends on the pH, temperature, oxygen, reaction product regulation, additives, and passivation substances, among other factors. The internal relationship among the influencing factors and the succession of microorganism diversity are discussed and reviewed in this paper. This paper is intended to provide a good reference for studies related to enhanced bioleaching.展开更多
Heap bioleaching is one of the most clean and economical processes for recovery of low-grade and complex ores, because the sulfide minerals are natural habitats for acidophiles capable of iron-and sulfur-oxidation. Th...Heap bioleaching is one of the most clean and economical processes for recovery of low-grade and complex ores, because the sulfide minerals are natural habitats for acidophiles capable of iron-and sulfur-oxidation. The most exciting advances in heap bioleaching are occurring in the field of microbiology, especially with the development of advanced molecular biology approaches. These chemolithotrophic microorganisms living in the acid mine environment fix N_2 and CO_2 and obtain energy for growth from soluble ferrous iron and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds during oxidation of sulfide minerals. The ferric iron as oxidant and sulfuric acid are a result of microbial activity and provide favorable conditions for the dissolution of sulfide minerals. Various microbial consortia were applied successfully in commercial bioleaching heaps around the world, and microbial community and activity were adapted related to the local climatic conditions, ore characteristics and engineering configuration. This review focuses on diversity of bioleaching microbes, their role in heap bioleaching processes, their community structure and function in industrial heaps and the relation to the ore characteristics and the engineering configuration, to give implications for optimizing leaching efficiency of heap bioleaching.展开更多
Bioleaching of chalcopyrite often encountered the formation of passivation layer, which inhibited the leaching process and resulted in a low leaching rate. This inhibitory effect can be eliminated by thermophilic biol...Bioleaching of chalcopyrite often encountered the formation of passivation layer, which inhibited the leaching process and resulted in a low leaching rate. This inhibitory effect can be eliminated by thermophilic biole- aching. The industrial test of BioCOP technology based on thermophiles was successfully completed, which confirmed the feasibility of chalcopyrite bioleaching. However, industrial leaching rate of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching is lower. This paper described the development status and industrial test of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching technology. The reasons for the lower efficiency of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching were analyzed. The strategies for successful chalcopyrite heap bioleaching were proposed.展开更多
Based on the momentum and mass conservation equations, a comprehensive model of heap bioleaching process is developed to investigate the interaction between chemical reactions, solution flow, gas flow, and solute tran...Based on the momentum and mass conservation equations, a comprehensive model of heap bioleaching process is developed to investigate the interaction between chemical reactions, solution flow, gas flow, and solute transport within the leaching system. The governing equations are solved numerically using the COMSOL Multiphysics software for the coupled reactive flow and solute transport at micro-scale, meso-scale and macro-scale levels. At or near the surface of ore particle, the acid concentration is relatively higher than that in the central area, while the concentration gradient decreases after 72 d of leaching. The flow simulation between ore particles by combining X-ray CT technology shows that the highest velocity in narrow pore reaches 0.375 m/s. The air velocity within the dump shows that the velocity near the top and side surface is relatively high, which leads to the high oxygen concentration in that area. The coupled heat transfer and liquid flow process shows that the solution can act as an effective remover from the heap, dropping the highest temperature from 60 to 38 ℃. The reagent transfer coupled with solution flow is also analyzed. The results obtained allow us to obtain a better understanding of the fundamental physical phenomenon of the bioleaching process.展开更多
A mathematical model for heap bioleaching is developed to analyze heat transfer, oxygen flow, target ion distribution and oxidation leaching rate in the heap. The model equations are solved with Comsol Multiphysics so...A mathematical model for heap bioleaching is developed to analyze heat transfer, oxygen flow, target ion distribution and oxidation leaching rate in the heap. The model equations are solved with Comsol Multiphysics software. Numerical simulation results show the following facts： Concentration of oxygen is relatively high along the boundary of the slope, and low in the center part where leaching rate is slow. Temper- ature is relatively low along the slope and reaches the highest along the bottom region near the slope, with difference being more than 6℃. Concentration of target mental ions is the highest in the bottom region near the slope. Oxidation leaching rate is relatively large in the bottom and slope part with a fast reaction rate, and small in the other part with low oxygen concentration.展开更多
Bioleaching of sulfide minerals by bacteria, mainly Thiobacillus ferrooxidans(T.f.) and Thiobacillus thiooxidans, plays an important role in hydrometallurgy because of its economic and environmental attractions. The s...Bioleaching of sulfide minerals by bacteria, mainly Thiobacillus ferrooxidans(T.f.) and Thiobacillus thiooxidans, plays an important role in hydrometallurgy because of its economic and environmental attractions. The surveys of production process and the bacterial oxidation activity in the heap bioleaching were investigated. The results show that pH value is high, bacteria biomass and ferric concentration are low, generation time (above 7.13 h) is long in leachate, and less bacteria are adsorbed on the ores. The bacteria in the leachate exposing on the surface and connecting with mineral, have much faster oxidation rate of Fe(Ⅱ) and shorter generation time, compared with those which are in the reservoir for a long time. There is diversity for oxidation activity of Fe(Ⅱ), while there is no diversity for oxidation of sulfur. So it is advisable to add sulfuric acid to degrade pH value to 2.0, add nutrients and shorten recycling time of leachate, so as to enhance bacteria concentration of leachate and the leaching efficiency.展开更多
基金financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0600704)the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars of China (No. 51722401)the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51734001)
文摘Compared with the traditional pyrometallurgical process, copper bioleaching has distinctive advantages of high efficiency and lower cost, enabling efficiently extracts of valuable metal resources from copper sulfides. Moreover, during long-term industrial applications of bioleaching, many regulatory enhancements and technological methods are used to accelerate the interfacial reactions. With advances in microbial genetic and sequencing technologies, bacterial communities and their mechanisms in bioleaching systems have been revealed gradually. The bacterial proliferation and dissolution of sulfide ores by a bacterial community depends on the pH, temperature, oxygen, reaction product regulation, additives, and passivation substances, among other factors. The internal relationship among the influencing factors and the succession of microorganism diversity are discussed and reviewed in this paper. This paper is intended to provide a good reference for studies related to enhanced bioleaching.
基金funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41401541,51674231)Bureau of International Co-operation,Chinese Academy of Sciences(122111KYSB20150013)
文摘Heap bioleaching is one of the most clean and economical processes for recovery of low-grade and complex ores, because the sulfide minerals are natural habitats for acidophiles capable of iron-and sulfur-oxidation. The most exciting advances in heap bioleaching are occurring in the field of microbiology, especially with the development of advanced molecular biology approaches. These chemolithotrophic microorganisms living in the acid mine environment fix N_2 and CO_2 and obtain energy for growth from soluble ferrous iron and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds during oxidation of sulfide minerals. The ferric iron as oxidant and sulfuric acid are a result of microbial activity and provide favorable conditions for the dissolution of sulfide minerals. Various microbial consortia were applied successfully in commercial bioleaching heaps around the world, and microbial community and activity were adapted related to the local climatic conditions, ore characteristics and engineering configuration. This review focuses on diversity of bioleaching microbes, their role in heap bioleaching processes, their community structure and function in industrial heaps and the relation to the ore characteristics and the engineering configuration, to give implications for optimizing leaching efficiency of heap bioleaching.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (Nos. 2012AA061501, 2012AA061502)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50934002)
文摘Bioleaching of chalcopyrite often encountered the formation of passivation layer, which inhibited the leaching process and resulted in a low leaching rate. This inhibitory effect can be eliminated by thermophilic biole- aching. The industrial test of BioCOP technology based on thermophiles was successfully completed, which confirmed the feasibility of chalcopyrite bioleaching. However, industrial leaching rate of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching is lower. This paper described the development status and industrial test of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching technology. The reasons for the lower efficiency of chalcopyrite heap bioleaching were analyzed. The strategies for successful chalcopyrite heap bioleaching were proposed.
基金Projects(50934002,51104011) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(IRT0950) supported by Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in Chinese UniversityProject(20100480200) supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
文摘Based on the momentum and mass conservation equations, a comprehensive model of heap bioleaching process is developed to investigate the interaction between chemical reactions, solution flow, gas flow, and solute transport within the leaching system. The governing equations are solved numerically using the COMSOL Multiphysics software for the coupled reactive flow and solute transport at micro-scale, meso-scale and macro-scale levels. At or near the surface of ore particle, the acid concentration is relatively higher than that in the central area, while the concentration gradient decreases after 72 d of leaching. The flow simulation between ore particles by combining X-ray CT technology shows that the highest velocity in narrow pore reaches 0.375 m/s. The air velocity within the dump shows that the velocity near the top and side surface is relatively high, which leads to the high oxygen concentration in that area. The coupled heat transfer and liquid flow process shows that the solution can act as an effective remover from the heap, dropping the highest temperature from 60 to 38 ℃. The reagent transfer coupled with solution flow is also analyzed. The results obtained allow us to obtain a better understanding of the fundamental physical phenomenon of the bioleaching process.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 50934002 and 50774011)the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (No. 20090450014)the DoctoralNatural Science Foundation of China (No. 20070008038)
文摘A mathematical model for heap bioleaching is developed to analyze heat transfer, oxygen flow, target ion distribution and oxidation leaching rate in the heap. The model equations are solved with Comsol Multiphysics software. Numerical simulation results show the following facts： Concentration of oxygen is relatively high along the boundary of the slope, and low in the center part where leaching rate is slow. Temper- ature is relatively low along the slope and reaches the highest along the bottom region near the slope, with difference being more than 6℃. Concentration of target mental ions is the highest in the bottom region near the slope. Oxidation leaching rate is relatively large in the bottom and slope part with a fast reaction rate, and small in the other part with low oxygen concentration.
文摘Bioleaching of sulfide minerals by bacteria, mainly Thiobacillus ferrooxidans(T.f.) and Thiobacillus thiooxidans, plays an important role in hydrometallurgy because of its economic and environmental attractions. The surveys of production process and the bacterial oxidation activity in the heap bioleaching were investigated. The results show that pH value is high, bacteria biomass and ferric concentration are low, generation time (above 7.13 h) is long in leachate, and less bacteria are adsorbed on the ores. The bacteria in the leachate exposing on the surface and connecting with mineral, have much faster oxidation rate of Fe(Ⅱ) and shorter generation time, compared with those which are in the reservoir for a long time. There is diversity for oxidation activity of Fe(Ⅱ), while there is no diversity for oxidation of sulfur. So it is advisable to add sulfuric acid to degrade pH value to 2.0, add nutrients and shorten recycling time of leachate, so as to enhance bacteria concentration of leachate and the leaching efficiency.
