Sánchez-España Javier, Falagán Carmen, Meier Jutta
Planetary Geology and Atmospheres Research Group, Department of Planetology and Habitability, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain.
School of Biological Sciences, King Henry Building, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2024;190:89-117. doi: 10.1007/10_2024_256.
Aluminum biorecovery is still at an early stage. However, a significant number of studies showing promising results already exist, although they have revealed problems that need to be solved so aluminum biorecovery can have a wider application and industrial upscaling. In this chapter, we revise the existing knowledge on the biorecovery of aluminum from different sources. We discuss the design, overall performance, advantages, technical problems, limitations, and possible future directions of the different biotechnological methods that have been reported so far. Aluminum biorecovery from different sources has been studied (i.e., solid wastes and primary sources of variable origin, wastewater with low concentrations of dissolved aluminum at pH-neutral or weakly acidic conditions, and acidic mine waters with high concentrations of dissolved aluminum and other metal(loid)s) and has shown that the process efficiency strongly depends on factors such as (1) the physicochemical properties of the source materials, (2) the physiological features of the used (micro)organisms, or (3) the biochemical process used. Bioleaching of aluminum from low-grade bauxite or red mud can much be achieved by a diverse range of organisms (e.g., fungi, bacteria) with different metabolic rates. Biorecovery of aluminum from wastewaters, e.g., domestic wastewater, acidic mine water, has also been accomplished by the use of microalgae, cyanobacteria (for domestic wastewater) or by sulfate-reducing bacteria (acidic mine water). In most of the cases, the drawback of the process is the requirement of controlled conditions which involves a continuous supply of oxygen or maintenance of anoxic conditions which make aluminum biorecovery challenging in terms of process design and economical value. Further studies should focus on studying these processes in comparison or in combination to existing economical processes to assess their feasibility.
铝的生物回收仍处于早期阶段。然而，尽管已有大量研究揭示了一些需要解决的问题，以便铝生物回收能够得到更广泛的应用和工业规模扩大，但仍有大量研究取得了令人鼓舞的成果。在本章中，我们回顾了从不同来源生物回收铝的现有知识。我们讨论了迄今为止报道的不同生物技术方法的设计、整体性能、优点、技术问题、局限性以及可能的未来发展方向。已对从不同来源进行铝生物回收展开了研究（即固体废物和来源各异的一次资源、pH值呈中性或弱酸性且溶解铝浓度较低的废水，以及溶解铝和其他金属（类金属）浓度较高的酸性矿井水），结果表明该过程的效率在很大程度上取决于以下因素：（1）原料的物理化学性质；（2）所用（微）生物的生理特性；或（3）所采用的生化过程。从低品位铝土矿或赤泥中生物浸出铝可通过多种具有不同代谢速率的生物（如真菌、细菌）来实现。利用微藻、蓝细菌（用于生活污水）或硫酸盐还原菌（酸性矿井水）也已实现了从废水中（如生活污水、酸性矿井水）生物回收铝。在大多数情况下，该过程的缺点是需要控制条件，这涉及持续供应氧气或维持缺氧条件，这使得铝生物回收在工艺设计和经济价值方面具有挑战性。进一步的研究应侧重于将这些过程与现有经济可行的过程进行比较或结合研究，以评估其可行性。
