Biological treatment of gold ore cyanidation wastewater in fixed bed reactors - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement Access content directly
Journal Articles Environmental Pollution Year : 1997

Biological treatment of gold ore cyanidation wastewater in fixed bed reactors

Abstract

The treatment of a cyanidation effluent containing thiocyanate, free cyanide, and complexed cyanide was con tinuously performed for a period of 6 months. Activated carbon, pozzolana, and a mixture of pumice stone and zeolite were tested as supports in fixed bed reactors. Activated carbon adsorbed the different forms of cyanide. In contrast, the other supports did not remove any pollutants from the effluent during an adsorption experiment. All supports successfully allowed fixation of bacteria. More than 90% of the thiocyanate was biologically decomposed into NH4 +, C02 and S042, even when increasing the feed flow-rate and the pollutant concentrations. Free and complexed cyanides were eliminated, probably through a combination of precipitation and biological degradation. The oxidation of ammonium into nitrate was only performed by the activated carbon-containing column and with the more diluted feeding. The nitrification process was inhibited in all reactors when the cyanide concentrations and feed flow-rates were increased
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Dates and versions

hal-02698759 , version 1 (01-06-2020)

Identifiers

  • HAL Id : hal-02698759 , version 1
  • PRODINRA : 25872
  • WOS : 000070970500012

Cite

Marie Christine Dictor, Fabienne Battaglia-Brunet, Dominique Morin, Andre Bories, M. Clarens. Biological treatment of gold ore cyanidation wastewater in fixed bed reactors. Environmental Pollution, 1997, 97 (3), pp.287-294. ⟨hal-02698759⟩
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