Biodesulfurization of vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite concentrates and pH control of bioleaching solution

• Published in: International journal of minerals, metallurgy and materials Vol. 20; no. 10; pp. 925 - 930
• Main Authors: Liu, Xiao-rong, Jiang, Sheng-cai, Liu, Yan-jun, Li, Hui, Wang, Hua-jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2013; Springer Nature B.V; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 201418, China%China Metallurgical Mining Corporation, Beijing 100011, China%Civil and Environmental Engineering School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
• Subjects: Bacterial leaching; Buffers; Ceramics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Citric acid; Composites; Corrosion and Coatings; Desulfurizing; Glass; Leaching; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Natural Materials; pH control; pH值控制; Pyrrhotite; Sulfur; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Tribology; Vanadium; 氧化亚铁硫杆菌; 浸出液; 生物脱硫; 磁铁矿精矿; 磷酸氢二钠; 酸性溶液; 钒钛磁铁矿; citric acid; vanadium; disodium hydrogen phosphate; titanomagnetite; biodesulfurization; Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
• ISSN: 1674-4799; 1869-103X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12613-013-0816-2

Vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite concentrates were desulfurized with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans （A. ferrooxidans）. The sulfur content of the concentrates was reduced from 0.69wt% to 0.14wt% after bioleaching for 15 d with a 10% pulp density at 30℃. Maintaining a stable pH value during biodesulfurization was critical because of high acid consumption, resulting from a combination of nonoxidative and oxidative dissolution of pyrrhotite in acid solution. It is discovered that the citric acid-disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer of pH 2.0 can control the solution pH value smoothly in the optimal range of 2.0-3.0 for A. ferrooxidans growth. Using the buffer in the volume fraction range of 5.0%-15.0% stimulates A. ferooxidans growth and improves the biodesulfurization efficiency. Compared with the buffer-free control case, the maximum increase of biodesulfurization rate is 29.7% using a 10.0vol% buffer. Bioleaching provides an alternative process for desulfurization of vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite ores.