Kinetic measurement of biological oxidation of ferrous iron at low ferric to ferrous ratios in a controlled potential batch reactor

摘要

Traditionally, the kinetics of microbial ferrous iron oxidation have been studied in continuous culture or in batch. Both methods have drawbacks: in continuous culture experiments have to be repeated at a number of dilution rates to cover the entire spectrum of ferrous to ferric ratios, which is time-consuming. Furthermore, experiments at very low ferric to ferrous ratios generally fail due to microbial wash-out at the high dilution rates needed to achieve these. In batch experiments, on the other hand, the prevalent ferric to ferrous ratio rapidly changes due to substrate depletion while the microbial population continually grows, making determination of specific momentary rates difficult. The present paper describes initial work with a novel device, the Redostat, which allows careful electrochemical control of ferric to ferrous ratio in a batch reactor. A culture of Leptospirillum ferriphilum was grown at 35°C and 5 g/L total iron by maintaining the ferric to ferrous ratio at 0.17, 0.51 and 1.65 (corresponding to redox potentials of 419, 452 and 482 mV vs. Ag/AgCl) respectively. The correlation of data obtained from off-gas and current measurements was excellent, and fitted Monod kinetics with ferric inhibition. A hitherto unobserved effect indicates the onset of ferric iron inhibition at the low redox potentials employed here.