Microbial clean-up of uranium in the presence of molybdenum using pretreated Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

The present study is an attempt to optimize the uranium biosorption by pretreated Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strain ZT-94. The influences of pH, contact time, biomass dose, uranium concentration and temperature were investigated. In optimal conditions, uranium biosorption capacity was 204.44 mg/g dry weight at pH 4 during 60 min. The biosorbent was characterized by SEM microscope. The equilibrium data was fitted well by the Freundlich model with R² = 0.8978. In the presence of molybdenum, pretreated biosorbent is tendency to adsorption of uranium. Finally, this study suggests that new biosorbent can be a potential candidate for uranium bioremediation in dual contamination with molybdenum.