Open AccessColumn bioleaching of sandstone type uranium ore deposit
Author(s) -
Hazrat Bilal,
Zhou Peng,
Bai Gao
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
pacific international journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2663-8991
pISSN - 2616-4825
DOI - 10.55014/pij.v2i4.82
Subject(s) - bioleaching , uranium , leaching (pedology) , uranium ore , chemistry , thiobacillus ferrooxidans , copper , metallurgy , nuclear chemistry , sulfur , geology , materials science , organic chemistry , soil science , soil water
Column bioleaching has been performed on sandstone-type uranium ore. The column is initially leached with H2SO4 to make the environment acidic and feasible for Thiobacillus ferroxidase bacteria growth. The column later injected with acid solution containing 6g/L H2SO4, iron source 1.5g/L (Fe3+ 0.75g/L, Fe2+ 0.75g/L) and bacteria. The leaching results show that the uranium concentration increases rapidly to a maximum value of 445mg/L and later decreases and reduced to the minimum value. Fe3+ and Fe2+ curves show that initially, Fe2+ concentration rises to indicate uranium oxidation. Later raise of Fe3+ concentration shows that bacteria growing within column causing oxidation of Fe2+ ions. Flow rate decreases from 6.35ml/hr to 5.37ml/hr at the start of the test but later enhances to 8.50ml/hr. The recovery curve shows that the total uranium recovered in this test is 83%. Maximum recovery attained within 90 hours which later changes slightly.