Systematic mechanistic studies on the accumulation of metals by microbial biomass has confirmed the ability of microorganisms to act as sequestering agents for metal species from solutions. Engineering processes based on the above phenomena have been designed and can be used for the treatment of large volume of waste water contaminated by low concentration of metal ions such as the ones from mining or metallurgical operations. These engineering applications make use of immobilized biomass reactors of various configurations. The paper presents background information on the design simulation and the pilot testing of immobilized biomass reactors for the sequestering of selected metals.
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