In-situ remediation of acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mine by filed pilot-scale passive treatment system: Performance and response of microbial communities to low pH and elevated Fe

2020 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 123985
Author(s):  
Haiyan Chen ◽  
Tangfu Xiao ◽  
Zengping Ning ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Enzong Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Coal Mine ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Low Ph ◽  
In Situ Remediation ◽  
Abandoned Coal Mine

scholarly journals Efficient Low-pH Iron Removal by a Microbial Iron Oxide Mound Ecosystem at Scalp Level Run

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christen L. Grettenberger ◽  
Alexandra R. Pearce ◽  
Kyle J. Bibby ◽  
Daniel S. Jones ◽  
William D. Burgos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Bacterial Community ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Iron Oxidation ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Low Ph ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Oxidation Rates ◽  
Acid Mine

ABSTRACT Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a major environmental problem affecting tens of thousands of kilometers of waterways worldwide. Passive bioremediation of AMD relies on microbial communities to oxidize and remove iron from the system; however, iron oxidation rates in AMD environments are highly variable among sites. At Scalp Level Run (Cambria County, PA), first-order iron oxidation rates are 10 times greater than at other coal-associated iron mounds in the Appalachians. We examined the bacterial community at Scalp Level Run to determine whether a unique community is responsible for the rapid iron oxidation rate. Despite strong geochemical gradients, including a >10-fold change in the concentration of ferrous iron from 57.3 mg/liter at the emergence to 2.5 mg/liter at the base of the coal tailings pile, the bacterial community composition was nearly constant with distance from the spring outflow. Scalp Level Run contains many of the same taxa present in other AMD sites, but the community is dominated by two strains of Ferrovum myxofaciens, a species that is associated with high rates of Fe(II) oxidation in laboratory studies. IMPORTANCE Acid mine drainage pollutes more than 19,300 km of rivers and streams and 72,000 ha of lakes worldwide. Remediation is frequently ineffective and costly, upwards of $100 billion globally and nearly $5 billion in Pennsylvania alone. Microbial Fe(II) oxidation is more efficient than abiotic Fe(II) oxidation at low pH (P. C. Singer and W. Stumm, Science 167:1121–1123, 1970, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.167.3921.1121 ). Therefore, AMD bioremediation could harness microbial Fe(II) oxidation to fuel more-cost-effective treatments. Advances will require a deeper understanding of the ecology of Fe(II)-oxidizing microbial communities and the factors that control their distribution and rates of Fe(II) oxidation. We investigated bacterial communities that inhabit an AMD site with rapid Fe(II) oxidation and found that they were dominated by two operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of Ferrovum myxofaciens, a taxon associated with high laboratory rates of iron oxidation. This research represents a step forward in identifying taxa that can be used to enhance cost-effective AMD bioremediation.

scholarly journals Heterotrophic Archaea Contribute to Carbon Cycling in Low-pH, Suboxic Biofilm Communities

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (23) ◽  
pp. 8321-8330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas B. Justice ◽  
Chongle Pan ◽  
Ryan Mueller ◽  
Susan E. Spaulding ◽  
Vega Shah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Low Ph ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bacterial Proteins ◽  
Microbial Biofilms ◽  
Solution Interface ◽  
Mine Acid

ABSTRACTArchaea are widely distributed and yet are most often not the most abundant members of microbial communities. Here, we document a transition fromBacteria- toArchaea-dominated communities in microbial biofilms sampled from the Richmond Mine acid mine drainage (AMD) system (∼pH 1.0, ∼38°C) and in laboratory-cultivated biofilms. This transition occurs when chemoautotrophic microbial communities that develop at the air-solution interface sink to the sediment-solution interface and degrade under microaerobic and anaerobic conditions. The archaea identified in these sunken biofilms are from the classThermoplasmata, and in some cases, the highly divergent ARMAN nanoarchaeal lineage. In several of the sunken biofilms, nanoarchaea comprise 10 to 25% of the community, based on fluorescentin situhybridization and metagenomic analyses. Comparative community proteomic analyses show a persistence of bacterial proteins in sunken biofilms, but there is clear evidence for amino acid modifications due to acid hydrolysis. Given the low representation of bacterial cells in sunken biofilms based on microscopy, we infer that hydrolysis reflects proteins derived from lysed cells. For archaea, we detected ∼2,400 distinct proteins, including a subset involved in proteolysis and peptide uptake. Laboratory cultivation experiments using complex carbon substrates demonstrated anaerobic enrichment ofFerroplasmaand Aplasma coupled to the reduction of ferric iron. These findings indicate dominance of acidophilic archaea in degrading biofilms and suggest that they play roles in anaerobic nutrient cycling at low pH.

In-situ remediation of acid mine drainage using a permeable reactive barrier in Aznalcóllar (Sw Spain)

2011 ◽  
Vol 191 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 287-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriol Gibert ◽  
Tobias Rötting ◽  
José Luis Cortina ◽  
Joan de Pablo ◽  
Carlos Ayora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Permeable Reactive Barrier ◽  
In Situ Remediation ◽  
Reactive Barrier ◽  
Sw Spain ◽  
Acid Mine

scholarly journals Application of a DepositionalFaciesModel to an Acid Mine Drainage Site

2010 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana F. Brown ◽  
Daniel S. Jones ◽  
Daniel B. Mills ◽  
Jennifer L. Macalady ◽  
William D. Burgos
Keyword(s):  
Acid Mine Drainage ◽  
Mine Drainage ◽  
Low Ph ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Microbial Composition ◽  
Geochemical Conditions ◽  
Oxidation Rates ◽  
Acid Mine ◽  
Red Eyes

ABSTRACTLower Red Eyes is an acid mine drainage site in Pennsylvania where low-pH Fe(II) oxidation has created a large, terraced iron mound downstream of an anoxic, acidic, metal-rich spring. Aqueous chemistry, mineral precipitates, microbial communities, and laboratory-based Fe(II) oxidation rates for this site were analyzed in the context of a depositionalfaciesmodel. Depositionalfacieswere defined as pools, terraces, or microterracettes based on cm-scale sediment morphology, irrespective of the distance downstream from the spring. The sediments were composed entirely of Fe precipitates and cemented organic matter. The Fe precipitates were identified as schwertmannite at all locations, regardless offacies. Microbial composition was studied with fluorescencein situhybridization (FISH) and transitioned from a microaerophilic,Euglena-dominated community at the spring, to aBetaproteobacteria(primarilyFerrovumspp.)-dominated community at the upstream end of the iron mound, to aGammaproteobacteria(primarilyAcidithiobacillus)-dominated community at the downstream end of the iron mound. Microbial community structure was more strongly correlated with pH and geochemical conditions than depositionalfacies. Intact pieces of terrace and pool sediments from upstream and downstream locations were used in flowthrough laboratory reactors to measure the rate and extent of low-pH Fe(II) oxidation. No change in Fe(II) concentration was observed with60Co-irradiated sediments or with no-sediment controls, indicating that abiotic Fe(II) oxidation was negligible. Upstream sediments attained lower effluent Fe(II) concentrations compared to downstream sediments, regardless of depositionalfacies.

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