Paques and Umicore have demonstrated the feasibility ofbiological treatment of the highly complex Hoboken wastewaters in a1 m3/h pilot plant at Umicore Precious Metals, Hoboken, Belgium.In the first step arsenic was precipitated from copper smeltereffluent as As2S3 using biogenic produced H2S. Other metals suchas copper, lead and cadmium were also removed as MeS toconcentrations well below the discharge levels.Subsequently, sulfate and nitrate were removed to lowconcentrations (<300 mg/l and < 5 mg/l respectively) in high rateengineered bioreactors. Sulfide produced in the sulfate reductionprocess was recycled to step 1 for metals precipitation.Selenite/selenate was partly removed in the sulfide precipitationstep, whereas the excess was biologically reduced and removed asselenium to concentrations <0.2 mg/l.
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