Removal and recovery of metals from a coal pile runoff

The removal and recovery of heavy metals from a coal pilerunoff water using a mixture of multiple metal-tolerantbacterial strains of ATCC 55673, and ATCC 55674 and a Pseudomonas sp. was investigated. The analysis of elementalcomposition of metal precipitates recovered from the bacterialbiomass by transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersiveX-ray analysis revealed the presence of metals originally presentin the wastewater. In addition, analysis of metals in culturesupernatant and bacterial biomass by inductively coupled plasmaemission spectroscopy (ICP-ES) indicated a removal range of 82-100% and a recovery of 15-58% of metals from the wastewater and bacterial biomass, respectively.