TY - JOUR
T1 - Testing the capacity of staphylococcus equorum for calcium and copper removal through MICP process
AU - Sepúlveda, Sebastián
AU - Duarte-Nass, Carla
AU - Rivas, Mariella
AU - Azócar, Laura
AU - Ramírez, Andrés
AU - Toledo-Alarcón, Javiera
AU - Gutiérrez, Leopoldo
AU - Jeison, David
AU - Torres-Aravena, Álvaro
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - This research focused on the evaluation of the potential use of a soil-isolated bacteria, identified as Staphylococcus equorum, for microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) and copper removal. Isolated bacteria were characterized considering growth rate, urease activity, calcium carbonate precipitation, copper tolerance as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and copper precipitation. Results were compared with Sporosarcina pasteurii, which is considered a model bacteria strain for MICP processes. The results indicated that the S. equorum strain had lower urease activity, calcium removal capacity and copper tolerance than the S. pasteurii strain. However, the culture conditions tested in this study did not consider the halophilic feature of the S. equorum, which could make it a promising bacterial strain to be applied in process water from mining operations when seawater is used as process water. On the other hand, copper removal was insufficient when applying any of the bacteria strains evaluated, most likely due to the formation of a copper–ammonia complex. Thus, the implementation of S. equorum for copper removal needs to be further studied, considering the optimization of culture conditions, which may promote better performance when considering calcium, copper or other metals precipitation.
AB - This research focused on the evaluation of the potential use of a soil-isolated bacteria, identified as Staphylococcus equorum, for microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) and copper removal. Isolated bacteria were characterized considering growth rate, urease activity, calcium carbonate precipitation, copper tolerance as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and copper precipitation. Results were compared with Sporosarcina pasteurii, which is considered a model bacteria strain for MICP processes. The results indicated that the S. equorum strain had lower urease activity, calcium removal capacity and copper tolerance than the S. pasteurii strain. However, the culture conditions tested in this study did not consider the halophilic feature of the S. equorum, which could make it a promising bacterial strain to be applied in process water from mining operations when seawater is used as process water. On the other hand, copper removal was insufficient when applying any of the bacteria strains evaluated, most likely due to the formation of a copper–ammonia complex. Thus, the implementation of S. equorum for copper removal needs to be further studied, considering the optimization of culture conditions, which may promote better performance when considering calcium, copper or other metals precipitation.
KW - Calcium
KW - Copper removal
KW - Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP)
KW - Mining process water
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114040511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/min11080905
DO - 10.3390/min11080905
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114040511
SN - 2075-163X
VL - 11
JO - Minerals
JF - Minerals
IS - 8
M1 - 905
ER -