Table Of Content

Mingming Zhang Iron Ores Bioprocessing Iron Ores Bioprocessing Mingming Zhang Iron Ores Bioprocessing Mingming Zhang Schereville, IN, USA ISBN 978-3-031-10100-7 ISBN 978-3-031-10102-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10102-1 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used them… – Thomas Edison The quote above is not only quite reflective of the purpose of this book but also very meaningful to the topic of this book because Thomas Edison himself had per- sonally ventured in iron ore industry, which proved to be his greatest commercial failure. Discovering that beach sand contained relatively high grade of iron, he formed the Edison Ore-Milling Company in 1881 based on his patented methods of ore crushing and extracting the metal using a large electromagnet. He tried for many years to make that business a success. The demand was not there, and despite the new technological innovations that Edison brought to the industry, the company could not compete with the operations in the Midwest iron ore production. Eventually, the technology was sold to other mine owners. However, Edison was able to discover a market for the large quantity of waste sand produced from the ore-milling company and decided to set up his own cement company in 1899. The cement company later went on to supply the concrete for the construction of the Yankee Stadium in 1922. I am not trying to introduce innovative ideas or concepts with guaranteed techni- cal or economic feasibility. Everything in this book can be found either directly or extrapolated from other literatures up to date. A mere rearrangement and compiling of all the information related to the topics is made in this book to give the readers an opportunity to understand some of the basic concepts and principles of iron ore bioprocessing, and to encourage readers to adapt and develop their own ideas to solve their problem at hand. The information explosion has indeed created a situation where it’s now impos- sible for any one person to stay up to date with the changes in any topic area (unless that topic is perhaps so minute in its focus that only a few dozen are following it and contributing to the existing body of knowledge). The explosion of the shear amount of literature, and birth of interdisciplines and disciplines or subject areas in the past decades have been phenomenal. Biohydrometallurgy is one that is born of biotechnology and mining engineering. With the maturing of bioprocessing as a discipline, v vi Preface it evolves from an interdisciplinary subject area of microbiology and hydrometal- lurgy to a discipline that covers the mining engineering and engineering science aspects of biotechnology, green chemistry, biomass, or renewable resource engineering. As such, books in the area are needed to cover the needs of educating the new generation of fine bioprocessing engineers, not just by converting well-versed mining engineers and engineering-savvy biologists to bioprocess engineers. With this book, I hope to fill this gap and bring the maturity of bioprocess engineering. Yet, some of the chapters in this book are more oriented toward industrial applica- tion aspects that are good references for process engineers and researchers who are looking for new process developments. The key aspect that makes iron ore bioprocessing special is that iron ore bioprocessing as an emerging field has potential to solve particular problems facing iron ore industry such as economic utilization of low-grade iron ore resources. Potential solutions stemmed from bioengineering functions and biological and chemical con- versions concerning the sustainable use of these resources are critical to revitalize the iron ore mining industry. Thus, the mechanism, rate, dynamic behavior, trans- formation performance, and manipulations of bioprocessing systems are the main topics of this book. Schereville, IN, USA Mingming Zhang Disclaimer This book is designed to provide information and resources to readers who are interested in the subjects discussed. While the author wishes to acknowledge the contri- butions of all of his peers, colleagues, and professional contemporaries whose works may have been quoted in this book, at times it is not easy to fulfill this respon- sibility, and the author is grateful to all those who have made this book possible. Included in this book are references to technologies and equipment that have been used or have potential to be used in iron ore bioprocessing; no guarantee is provided that the information is current, and discussion of any particular piece of technologies or equipment does not constitute an endorsement. vii Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4 Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Iron Ore Processing, General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2 Iron Ore Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1 Iron Ore Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.2 Mining Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3 Iron Ore Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.1 Iron Ore Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.2 Iron Ore Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4 Iron Ore Beneficiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.1 Gravity Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.2 Flotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 4.3 Magnetic Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 5 A gglomeration of Iron Ores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 5.1 Sintering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 5.2 Pelletizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Microorganisms and Bioprocessing, General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 2 Classification of Microorganisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3 Microorganisms for Ferrous Metal Extraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.1 Iron-Oxidizing Microorganism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.2 Iron-Reducing Microorganism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 ix x Contents 4 Industrial Microbiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 4.1 Industrial Microorganisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 4.2 Microbial Nutrition and Growth Kinetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.3 Industrial Bioprocess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Physicochemical and Biological Processes in Iron Ore Bioprocessing . . . . 89 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 2 Principles of Microbial Interaction with Iron Ores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 2.1 Metal Mobilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 2.2 Metal Immobilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 2.3 Organic Matter Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 2.4 Common Biological Transformations of Minerals by Microbes . . . . 98 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Engineering Design and Process Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 2 Process Flowsheet Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 2.1 Revamping of Existing Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 3 Equipment Selection, Specifications, and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 3.1 Reactors in Bioleaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 3.2 Gas Mass Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 3.3 Suspension of Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 3.4 Future Development and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Economics of Bioprocessing Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 2 Economic Aspects of Iron Ore Bioprocessing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 2.1 Capital Cost Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 2.2 Operating Cost Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 2.3 Profitability Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Environmental Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 2 Environmental Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 3 Environmental Impact Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 3.1 Environmental Impacts of Iron Ore Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 3.2 Remediation Processes for Iron Ore Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Contents xi Laboratory Research and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 2 Isolation, Culture, and Adaptation of Microorganism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 3 Laboratory Shaking Flask Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 4 Pilot Column and Tank Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Pilot-Scale Studies, Scaling-Up, and Technology Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 2 Pilot-Scale Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 2.1 Key Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 2.2 Challenges for Scaling Up Bioprocesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 3 Scale-Up and Technology Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 3.1 Framework for Technology Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Outstanding Questions and Future Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 2 Outstanding Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 2.1 How to Profit from Existing Data and Upcoming Technologies to Speed Up the Iron Ore Bioprocessing Development? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 2.2 But Do We Need “New Technologies” for Speeding Up Iron Ore Bioprocess Development? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 3 Future Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177