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Continuous bacterial coal desulfurization employing Thiobacillus ferrooxidans
Author(s) -
Myerson Allan S.,
Kline Paul C.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.260260117
Subject(s) - dilution , flue gas desulfurization , coal , thiobacillus ferrooxidans , chemistry , pyrite , leaching (pedology) , thiobacillus , sulfur , saturation (graph theory) , bacterial growth , environmental chemistry , bacteria , mineralogy , environmental science , geology , soil science , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , paleontology , physics , mathematics , combinatorics , soil water
The leaching of pyrite sulfur from coal employing Thiobacillus Ferrooxidans was studied in a continuous stirred tank reactor at a variety of dilution rates (0.02–0.11 h −1 ) and coal surface areas (0.25–1.0 m 2 /mL). The bacterial leaching rate was found to increase with increasing coal surface area concentration and increasing dilution rate. The bacterial concentration on the coal surface was related to the bacterial concentration in solution by a irreversible second‐order (of the second kind) kinetic equation. The concentration of bacteria on the coal in all experiments was the concentration at saturation. Step changes in the coal concentration were observed to result in dramatic declines in bacterial concentration in solution. A bacterial mass balance model was employed to calculate the specific growth rate on the solid which was observed to increase with increasing dilution rate.