Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria

Secondary treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) from a copper mine in China which has very low-concentration heavy metal ions and high conductivity (2,800 mu s/cm), was attributed to the high concentration of many dissolved monovalent and divalent ions. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SBR) which has become an active research area in recent years were used to remove heavy metal ions and reclaim AMD. Under anaerobic condition, SBR can reduce sulfate ions into the hydrogen sulfide, which can precipitate the dissolved heavy metal ions. In this study, we utilized domesticated SBR to treat the secondary treatment of AMD. Experimental results showed that the rejections of SO42- was greater than 77.39% on average and the maximum rejections of SO42- was 90.4% and that the rejections of Cu2+ and the rejections of COD were above 99.8% and 70% respectively and that the pH of exported water was greater than the pH of entering water under the conditions of entering water with C-SO4(2) = 2300mg/L, COD/ C-SO4(2) =1.6, pH= 4.5 and T= 30 degrees C tested.