Different strains of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and Thiobacillus thiooxidans were used to catalyze the oxidative dissolution of iron pyrite, FeS(2), in nine different coal samples. Kinetic variables and parametric factors that were determined to have a pronounced effect on the rate and extent of oxidative dissolution at a fixed Po(2) were: the bacterial strain, the nitrogen/phosphorus molar rati...

Coal mine drainage refers to the acidic drainage caused by surface mining, deep mining or coal refuse piles. Being highly acidic with elevated levels of dissolved metals, it is otherwise known as “Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)”. Formation of AMD is due to a series of geochemical and microbiological processes involving acidophilic chemolithotrophs such as Thiobacillus, Thiomispora, Leptospirillum etc...

Charge and softness of the outer part of the cell wall of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans in the low ionic strength medium The surface charge and surface potential are parameters influencing the microbial adhesion phenomenon through the electrostatic interaction between bacteria and substrates. The Smoluchowski equation, originally developed for estimating the above parameters from the experimentally...

An artificial pyritic coal spoil was prepared and examined over a period of 1.5 years for changes in the population of various physiological varieties of bacteria and also for mineral leaching. Heterotrophic bacteria were the first to dominate the spoil, acquiring a population of 10(7) cells per g within 2 weeks. Bacteria capable of utilizing choline sulfate as the sole source of energy compris...

The ability of microorganisms to grow on carbon disulphide (CS,) as a sole source of carbon and energy appears to be very limited : none was obtained from enrichment culture and eight Thiobacillus species could not use it. Thiobacillus thioparus strain TK-m could grow autotrophically on either CS2 or carbonyl sulphide (COS) as sole substrates. Growth yield on CS2 was 7.9 f 0.9 g cell-carbon (mo...

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) have been studied extensively in the petroleum industry due to their role in corrosion, but very little is known about sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB), which drive the oxidization of sulfur-compounds produced by the activity of SRB in petroleum reservoirs. Here, we surveyed the community structure, diversity and abundance of SRB and SOB simultaneously based on 16...