Removal and recovery of metals from a coal pile runoff.

The removal and recovery of heavy metals from a coal pile runoff water using a mixture of multiple metal-tolerant bacterial strains of ATCC 55673, and ATCC 55674 and a Pseudomonas sp. was investigated. The analysis of elemental composition of metal precipitates recovered from the bacterial biomass by transmission electron microscopy andenergy dispersive X-ray analysis revealed the presence of metals originally present in the wastewater. In addition, analysis of metals in culture supernatant and bacterial biomass by inductively coupled plasma emission 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.