Sharif Digital Repository

This study focused on the tolerance of fungi strains including Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus foetidus and Penicillium for different metals (Ni, Co, Mo, V, Mn, Mg, Fe, W and Zn ). Then Aspergillus niger was exposed to mixture of Mo, V and Mn (at a mass ratio of 1:2:6 as approximately present in the spent refinery processing catalyst). The degree of tolerance was measured from the growth rate in the presence of various metals and compared to a control which contained no metals. Effect of type of strains, type of metal and metal concentration on adaptive tolerance of fungus was evaluated. Adaptation experiments with single metals showed Aspergillus niger tolerated up to 1000 mg/l Ni, Zn, 1500... 

Recovery of heavy metals from Hydrocracking spent catalyst was studied in a bioreactor by Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. At first adaptation of microorganisms was done with spent catalyst in shaker flask. Using central composite design (CCD) the experiments were conducted in order to find optimized condition. Three factors such as particle size, pulp density and aeration rate were examined. Reduced cubic models were established to identify the relationship between the recovery percent of the metals and the variables. The results showed the maximum extraction of 87% Mo, 37% Ni and 15% Al were achieved after 7 days of batch process in bioreactor. The optimal values of variables were pulp... 

In this project, bioleaching has been investigated as a solution for detoxification and metal recovery of spent hydrocracking catalysts of Tehran petroleum refinery which is listed as a hazardous waste. In this project four stages has been accomplished as follows: 1- Adaptation of Penicillium simplicissimum and Aspergillus niger with different heavy metals present in a spent hydrocracking catalyst, individually and with mixture of metals as well as adaptation by spent catalyst which the cumulative action of multi-metals enhanced the toxic effect; 2- The one-step, two-step, and spent medium bioleaching of the spent catalyst by the adapted fungi in batch cultures were investigated and... 

In this work bioleaching of vanadium has been done from Saghand Ore (Anomaly II). Leaching of vanadium was done in several stages. First, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxxidans were used for dissolution of pure vanadium pentoxide and it was observed that these bacteria are able to dissolve and reduce vanadium with high efficiency. After that these bacteria were employed to leaching of vanadium from ore; however there were no results by those experiments and no vanadium dissolved in liquor although bacterial activity was visible. In the second stage, oxalic acid 0.1 M as an organic acid and three inorganic acids, namely sulfuric, hydrochloridric and nitric acids, in... 

Bubble column reactors owe their wide application area to a number of advantages they provide both in design and operation as compared to other reactors. This type of reactors can be used as bio reactors in which microorganisms are applied to perform a special process such as bioleaching. In this study, a laboratory scale bubble column reactor for bio recovery of metals in Tehran refinery used catalysts has been simulated via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results are presented in two parts; in first, hydrodynamic characteristics of multiphase flows in reactor are presented. Gas hold up, liquid phase velocity distribution and shear stress in bubble column for different aeration... 

Every year, an enormous amount of catalysts are consumed in oil refineries during refining processes. After some regeneration cycles in order to recover their activity, they are not anymore effective and must be disposed. These spent catalysts are regarded as dangerous solid wastes as they significantly include some contaminations like vanadium, nickel, arsenic, sodium. From another point of view, the metals present in spent catalysts are highly valuable and are used extensively in steel industry and manufacture of special alloys. So, it sounds profitable to extract and recover these metals from such a cheap source instead of minerals and ores. Basically, there are two main processes, hydro-... 

In this work, bioleaching was used to extract valuable uranium from a low grade ore. Bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch cultures using a native strain of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of rotation speed, initial redox potential, initially added Fe concentration, particle size, pH, temperature, pulp density, and culture type. In the shake flask systems, over 99% of the uranium was bioleached in 48 hours at some conditions. Uninoculated flasks gave only around 25% leaching. At each study, uranium and iron concentrations, solution oxidation– reduction potential and pH were measured. The results showed that 150 rpm, d80=100 ... 

During oil refinement, solid catalysts which contain metals such as aluminum, tungstan, molybdenum and nickel are highly used. Following several times reductions and re-applications, their activity potentiality is decreased in a such a way that they can not be re-used., as a result of which they are treated as solid waste. Based on natural potentiality, microorganisms are defined as convertibles of solid compounds to extractive forms and soluble materials. This project aims at finding other factors that have more impact on biological extraction and determining optimal conditions for biological extraction in order to reach maximum extraction efficiency within discontinuous conditions. The... 

Nowadays, because of drastically decrease of copper sulfide ore’s grade, and difficulties in leaching of them, new processes of copper production like bioleaching technique become significant. Finding the optimal conditions for bioleaching, require investing a lot of time and cost. Computer simulation is useful in this case. Temperature, affects the kinetics of dissolution reactions, type and growth rate of bacteria, and finally, rate and amount of recovery of valuable copper metal from ores, so determination of temperature within the bioheap is very important. Thermophiles are better than mesophiles in chalcopyrite bioleaching and in the range of 55 to 65 degree centigrade, thermophiles... 

This study focused on the investigation of bioleaching of heavy metals from incinerator ash using Thiobacillus thiooxidans. Eight factors were examined for their significance on bioleaching using a Placket-Burman factorial design. Four significant variables (pulp density, Initial pH, sulfur Concentration and inoculation amount) were selected for the optimization studies. The combined effect of these variables on metal bioleaching was studied using a central composite design. Second order polynomials were established to identify the relationship between the recovery percent of the metals and the four significant variables. The optimal values of the variables for maximum metals bioleaching... 

Accumulation of electronic wastes in the environment is one of the recent ecological problems. This type of wastes contain metallic and non-metallic elements which can contaminate the environment. On the other hand due to the high volume of precious and basic metals within e-waste, it could be considered as a secondary resource. Bioleaching is a suitable method for the recovery of metals from e-waste which, on the contrary to the conventional recycling methods in the industry, is both economically and ecologically efficient. The aim of this research is the isolation of native micro-organism and evaluating its ability in recovering copper from a mixture of computer, cellphone, fax and copy... 

The recycling of the secondary resources for the extraction of their metallic contents is undoubtedly environmentally friendly and can be economic. One of the most important secondary resources is the electronic wastes (E-wastes) which has been widely produced as the discarded electrical/electronic devices. The usual physical/chemical treatments of E-wastes not only result in an increase in human health risks and environmental pollution but also lead to the missing of their valuable metallic contents. An alternative method for the recycling of E-wastes is bioleaching which has recently attracted more attention. The advantages of this process are low energy consumption and environment... 

In the recent years, the world has been faced with a spectacular increase in variety and usage of electronic and electric devices. Unfortunately, the highly increasing march of technology reduces the time of their usage, causing a high degree of electric and electronic waste. Nonetheless, these E-waste enjoys a high percentage in precious metals such as Cadmium, Copper, Nickle, Zinc, Barium, Beryllium, Aluminum, Gold, Silver, Platinum, and so forth. With this in mind, they can be named as “secondary mines”, enjoying higher in degree of these metals even than natural mines. Therefore, extraction and recovery of the very metals are of great importance. Nowadays, using microorganisms in order... 

Among all electornical wastes, printed circuit boards (PCBs) of mobile phones and computers has more share than other e-wastes. E-wastes contains toxic and maybe worthable metals like copper, nickel, gold, silvet and etc. In this project, ability of Penicillin Simplicissimum in bio-leaching of copper and nickle in mobile phones PCBs, is studied. Daily production of this kind of e-wastes, requires an industrialized and economical method to help the environment. At the first step of this project, the fungi was adapted to e-waste. Then, optimization of pH and number of spores in inoculum of bioleaching by Penicillin Simplicissimum in non-conventional mediums (sugar, cheese water and molasses)... 

This research aims to expand comprehensive information about bioleaching of different kinds of electronic waste (E-waste). The selected wastes were computer PCBs (CPCBs), mobile phone PCBs (MPPCBs), television PCBs (TVPCBs), fax machine PCBs (FPCBs), copy machine PCBs (COPCBs) and central processing units (CPUs). At the first step, a comprehensive study made on the E-waste structure. The best method for precious metal digestion analysis introduced, i.e., using aqua regia, hydrogen peroxide, hydrofluoric acid, and boric acid. The economic values of the E-wastes were as follows: CPU> MPPCBs> COPCBs> FPCBs> CPCBs> TVPCBs. Among the metals, gold attributed to the highest value distribution and... 

Given the complex structure of electronic waste and the difficulty of recycling it by traditional methods, the focus is mainly on biohydrometallurgy method, and in particular on bioleaching. To recover metals, various microorganisms are utilized in this method. In light of previous studies, cyanogenic bacteria have been widely used for the extraction of basic and precious metals. Among the species, indigenous microorganisms have a higher ability to resist toxic environments in the bioleaching of metals due to their adaptation by rapid changes in their metabolic system over time. The main objective of this study is to isolate indigenous microorganisms from electronic waste landfill for their... 

The growth of E-waste generation in the recent century is a global concern. E-waste is not only a hazardous pollutant but also a secondary mine of metals. The printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the major section in electronic equipment that are rich in basic metals. Bioleaching processes were used to mobilize metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). In the present investigation, the bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans (A.thiooxidans) and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans(A.ferrooxidans) were used as bioleaching bacteria to solubilize metals from WPCB. In this research, the catalytic effect of powder activated carbon (AC) and graphene in bioleaching Cu and Zn from WPCB was...