Feasibility study on bench- scale sulfate-reducing bioreactor for the biosulfidogenesis and selective precipitation of copper (II) from actual gold smelting wastewater

Date

10-2010

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Ma. Christina V. Mahilum

Committee Member

Marilyn C. Del Barrio, Butch G. Bataller,

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Abstract

This study was done to evaluate the technical feasibility of bioremediation using biogenic hydrogen sulfide produced from Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria (SRB) in a bench-scale bioreactor as potential wastewater treatment to selectively recover copper from gold smelting wastewater. The SRB-15 strain was used in a Calcium Sulfate-Chicken Egg Media (CEM). This inocula-media system was incubated and grown in a 60L fiberglass sulfate-reducing bioreactor. The bioreactor was operated at ambient temperature. The operating pressure ranges from 0 to 7.1psi. The pressures in the Sulfate-Reducing Bioreactor was measured during every sparging and plotted against sparging interval. These pressures was related to the number of moles of H₂S using the ideal gas equation. The results of the study showed that biosulfidogenesis in the bioreactor is feasible since hydrogen sulfide is produced as manifested in the pressure readings. However, the number of moles of H₂S produced is low, averaging only 0.497 moles per sparging. The highest amount of H₂S production was measured at the 5ᵗʰ sparging of the first trial. The media costing for the CEM and SRM was calculated and compared. It was proven that using CEM instead of the SRM can save 62.89% per run. The cost of CEM per moles of H₂S produced was calculated and compared with the cost of producing synthetic H₂S. It was shown that the cost of CEM per H₂S produced is still cheaper than synthetic production of H₂S by up to 46.16%.

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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