Biofilm‐immobilised Citrobacter sp. removed uranyl ion from flows supplemented with glycerol 2‐phosphate. The metal uptake mechanism was mediated by the activity of a cell‐surface bound phosphatase that precipitated liberated inorganic phosphate with uranyl ion as HUO2PO4·4H2O at the bacterial surface. A modified integrated form of the Michaelis–Menten equation is proposed to describe the removal of metal ion by a columnar bioreactor, where the efficiency of metal removal is semi‐quantitatively related to the input flow rate, the total enzyme loading (E0) and the bioreactor activity. With biofilm‐immobilised bacteria, E0 was further divisible (split) into subparameters of phosphatase titre per bacterium and total biomass surface area. Varying the split E0 and the reaction temperature modified the bioreactor performance. The immobilised bacteria retained high metal loads without loss in steady‐state activity. Accumulated metal was recovered as a concentrated solution.
A Citrobacter sp. accumulates uranyl ion (UO2(2+)) as crystalline HUO2PO4.4H2O (HUP), using enzymatically generated inorganic phosphate. Ni was not removed by this mechanism, but cells already loaded with HUP removed Ni2+ by intercalative ion-exchange, forming Ni(UO2PO4)2.7H2O, as concluded by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and proton induced x-ray emission (PIXE) analyses. The loaded biomass became saturated with Ni rapidly, with a molar ratio of Ni:U in the cellbound deposit of approx. 1:6; Ni penetration was probably surface-localized. Cochallenge of the cells with Ni2+ and UO2(2+), and glycerol 2-phosphate (phosphate donor for phosphate release and metal bioprecipitation) gave sustained removal of both metals in a flow through bioreactor, with more extensively accumulated Ni. We propose 'Microbially Enhanced Chemisorption of Heavy Metals' (MECHM) to describe this hybrid mechanism of metal bioaccumulation via intercalation into preformed, biogenic crystals, and note also that MECHM can promote the removal of the transuranic radionuclide neptunium, which is difficult to achieve by conventional methods.
821 (1964). ( 20) The observed phenomenon is best described by what is generally called "boiling". It should be emphasized, however, that the words "boiling" and "condensing" are strictly used in a purely phenomenological sense without any interpretation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.