Facilities for Biological Removal of Copper from Waste Water

Abstract

There are many technologies of heavy metal removal from water, including biological-chemical processes. The aim of this work was to study and compare two methods suitable for wastewater treatment. The first involves three stages: production of H₂S by sulfate-reducing bacteria, precipitation of metals by the produced H₂S and filtration of metal sulfides. The other is biosorption of metals, which proceeds in two phases: a rapid, metabolism-independent phase (5 - 10 min) and a slow, metabolism-dependent phase. The studies confirm that both methods are able to remove copper and other metals from aqueous solutions.