Coupled bioprocess to treat acid mine drainage and decontamination of biogas to elemental sulfur production in bench scale

• Grant number: 16/01299-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Technology
• Principal Investigator: Denise Bevilaqua
• Grantee: Samir Prioto Tayar
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 16/23494-7 - Study and optimization of hidrogen sulfide production using upflow anaerobic packed bed biorreactor, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Acid mine dreinage (AMD) is an effluent which has low pH and high sulfate concentrations and is generated from metal sulfide oxidation in mining regions. Cases where AMD contacts water bodies may cause serious environmental damages, as happened in the Tinto river in Spain, which has a pH value close to 2.3, therefore is considered dead.Due to the severity of these problems, many chemical and biotechnological treatments have been proposed to remove sulfate from wastewater like AMD. The chemical treatment generally produce residues or are costly, so it had increased the use of treatments where micro-organisms reduces sulfate and consequently raise the pH of the solution.However one of the products of this process is the H2S which is a pollutant and toxic gas that demands posterior treatment, that can be chemical or biotechnological, where the chemical usually use alkaline solution to neutralize the sulfidic acid, generating another residue. Among the biotechnological treatments, the trickling biofilters has been gaining ground for presenting easy and inexpensive operation process. This work aims to develop a coupled bioprocess to treat acid mine drainage using sulfate reducing micro-organisms for production of H2S which is sequentially treated in a trickling biofilter to obtain elemental sulfur that is a less toxic form of sulfur and has considerable economic value. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

TAYAR, SAMIR PRIOTO; SOLCIA GUERRERO, RENATA DE BELLO; HIDALGO, LETICIA FERRARESI; BEVILAQUA, DENISE. Evaluation of Biogas Biodesulfurization Using Different Packing Materials. CHEMENGINEERING, v. 3, n. 1, p. 12-pg., 2019-03-01. (14/22710-2, 16/01299-8)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

TAYAR, Samir Prioto. Study of sulfate reducing and sulfide oxidizing bioprocesses aiming the treatment of liquid and gaseous residues. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Química. Araraquara Araraquara.