Biomineralization Applied to Water Treatment

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 3468

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratorio de Biotecnología Ambiental Aplicada, Departamento de Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Recursos Biológicos, Universidad de Antofagasta, Avda. Angamos 601, Antofagasta 1270300, Chile
Interests: microalgae; biotechnology; microbial biomineralization
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Guest Editor
Unidad de Bioquímica, Departamento Biomédico, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta 1240000, Chile
Interests: biomineralization; biomining; mineral biobeneficiation
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School of Biochemical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile
Interests: biogas; wastewater treatment; heavy metals; microalgae; AnMBR; MICP
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions for rapid, open-access publication of high-quality peer-reviewed studies in the field of microbial biomineralization for water treatment. Biomineralization is a process performed by various types of organisms. In bacteria, changes in internal metabolism modify their surrounding environment, inducing the precipitation of crystals such as calcium carbonate and struvite, among many others. One of the most studied processes is the microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) by the urea pathway. Thus, the bacteria hydrolyze the urea through the urease enzyme, releasing ammonium and carbonate, which generates beneficial conditions for precipitation of calcium carbonate. Currently, MICP have been shown to be relevant for applications such as removal of heavy metals through coprecipitation with CaCO3, biocementation, and other biotechnological applications. For this Special Issue, we encourage the contribution of laboratories or companies that are mainly focused on MICP for the treatment of water (including seawater, wastewater, or other types of water) and research dealing with the impact of microbial biomineralization processes on natural and industrial environments. Additionally, we welcome other studies focused on the function of other compounds derived from microorganisms that favor the formation of biominerals in aquatic environments. Likewise, this Special Issue aims to cover other interdisciplinary aspects that address interactions between minerals and intra- or extracellular organic compounds, and the role of biominerals in possible industrial applications on the bioremediation of heavy metals from wastewater or others.

Dr. Mariella Rivas
Dr. Dayana Arias
Dr. Alvaro Esteban Torres-Aravena
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Biomineralization
  • MICP, microbial-induced carbonate precipitation
  • Water treatment
  • Bioremediation
  • Microbe–mineral interactions in aquatic environments
  • Seawater
  • Ion removal

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 1600 KiB  
Article
Testing the Capacity of Staphylococcus equorum for Calcium and Copper Removal through MICP Process
by Sebastián Sepúlveda, Carla Duarte-Nass, Mariella Rivas, Laura Azócar, Andrés Ramírez, Javiera Toledo-Alarcón, Leopoldo Gutiérrez, David Jeison and Álvaro Torres-Aravena
Minerals 2021, 11(8), 905; https://doi.org/10.3390/min11080905 - 21 Aug 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2701
Abstract
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 [...] Read more.
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. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomineralization Applied to Water Treatment)
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