Column Experimental Study on Synergetic Treatment of Uranium-Bearing Wastewater with Sulfate Reducing Bacteria and Zero-Valent Iron

The treatment of uranium-bearing wastewater from uranium mine and using microorganism to treating wastewater is paid much attention to environmental researchers. Based on column experiments, the paper investigated the potential using sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and zero-valent iron (ZVI) to synergetic treat contamination in wastewater such as sulfate, uranium, etc. The results show that SRB+ZVI can effectively remove contamination U(VI) and SO4^2- in wastewater, the removal rate is 99.4% and 86.2% for U(VI) and SO4^2- respectively, the pH value of wastewater can be basified to neutral. U(VI) and SO4^2- as electron acceptor of sulfate reducing bacteria are removed by biological reduction. The corrosion of ZVI is benefit to enhance the pH value of wastewater and form anaerobic reducing environment, strengthen survival and metabolism reaction of SRB, and play a synergetic enhancement.