Rice Straw as Carbon Source for Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Treating Acid Mine Drainage

摘要

Tolerance of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to initial pH of synthetic acid mine drainage (AMD) was investigated. The feasibility and main impact factors of using rice straw as carbon source for SRB treating synthetic AMD (pH=2.5) without additional chemical neutralizer were studied, with pure ethanol as carbon source control. Batch experiment results showed that when synthetic AMD with initial pH 2.5-7 in absence of copper, sulfate ions were reduced and pH increased to 6.34-7.95 within three weeks. When rice straw and ethanol were used as carbon sources the sulfate reduction efficiency was 54.2% and 94.5%, respectively. However, when copper ion was added into the synthetic AMD present no significant SRB reduction and the pH of reactive mixture remained below 5 which was unfavorable for SRB acclimation within 3 weeks. This is might be attributed to the toxicity of the copper ions.