Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Biological treatment of heavy metals

can we biologically treat the heavy metals present in electroplating wastes using any specific bacteria?

Moumita Sengupta
student - Kolkata, India
December 14, 2009

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Hi, Moumita. To my knowledge there are no such commercial installations.

But you need to carefully define what you are trying to do. For example, raw waste from an electroplating shop may be capable of killing nearly any bacteria, what with acids, alkalies, and possibly cyanides, hydrofluoric acid, and chromic acid. And what would you expect the bacteria to beneficially do -- certainly not eliminate the metal, only concentrate it. And how concentrated in metal can you expect a bacteria to be?

But this does not preclude the possibility that bacteria could achieve something. For example, they may be able to destroy cyanide or chelating agents that prevent precipitation of the metals. Or perhaps they can serve as a sort of living ion-exchange resin to selectively remove certain metallic contaminants to very low concentration. If a living organism requires a certain ppb or ppm of various metals to thrive, it seems pretty likely that it can scavenge them from a solution you expose it to. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December 15, 2009