PARENT SESSION
PW5 - Microbial Treatment and Biorecovery of Acid Mine Drainage
Wednesday, 20 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(P772) Designing Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Bioreactors.
Zaluski, Marek*,1, Trudnowski, John1, Park, Brian1, Bless, Diana2, 1 MSE-Technology Applications, Butte, MT, USA2 U.S. EPA Office Research and Development, Cincinnati, OH, USA
ABSTRACT- Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) bioreactors are used to passively treat acid mine drainage (AMD) emanating from abandoned or active mine sites. The design process of such bioreactors consists of several phases that may include site characterization, laboratory experiments, biogeochemical modeling, economical analysis, selection of the configuration of the bioreactor, and the structural/mechanical design. Examples of work performed for each phase of the design are included in the presentation. Also included is a brief description of the BEST (bioreactor economics, size and time of operation) model that was developed specifically for designing SRB bioreactors. BEST is a spreadsheet-based model that is used in conjunction with a public domain computer software package, MINTEQAK. Research and work that resulted in this presentation was funded by the U.S. EPA and is jointly administered by the EPA and the U.S. DOE under DOE contract number DE-AC22-96EW96405. The project is implemented by MSE Technology Applications, Inc., Butte, Montana.
Key words: Design, Bioreactor, SRB, Modeling