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DOI 10.1007/s12649-012-9145-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Received: 2 December 2011 / Accepted: 25 June 2012 / Published online: 14 July 2012
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Introduction
Consumption of tellurium, which has been used widely in
metallurgy, electronics, and applied chemical industries, is
increasing particularly because of increased production of
cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cells [1]. A rapid increase
in the tellurium price is expected from the large-scale
development of the CdTe solar cells technology [2].
Because tellurium is present mainly along with copper ore,
more than 90 % of tellurium is produced from anode
slimes as a by-product of electrolytic copper refining [1].
The annual tellurium production from cupper mining is
estimated to grow from 550 tons in 2011 to 1,200 tons in
2030 [2]. Although tellurium can also be recovered from
industrial scrap such as photoreceptor drums or floor
sweepings, only 10 % of production derives from such
secondary sources [3]. Therefore the recycling of tellurium
from wastes and wastewater must be promoted to satisfy its
increasing demand. Nevertheless, few trials of processes to
recover or recycle tellurium especially from wastewater
have been reported to date.
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(SAS7500A; Seiko Instruments Inc.). Tellurate concentrations in this study were defined as (soluble tellurium concentration)(tellurite concentration).
The GC/MS analysis of volatile tellurium compounds
was conducted on GC/MS 450-GC equipped with 220-MS
(Varian, Palo Alto, CA, USA). Helium was used as carrier
gas at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Injector conditions were the
following: temperature of 290 C, with split mode at 1:10.
Transfer line, manifold, and ion trap temperatures were set
respectively to 280, 40 and 200 C. Separations were
conducted using 30 m x 0.25 mm (1.4 lm film thickness)
VF-624 ms column (Varian Inc.). The column temperature
was programmed as follows: 35 C held for 1 min, then
heated at 10 C/min to 250 C and 20 C/min to 280 C
held constant for 1 min. Scanning masses were
40450 amu. The compounds were identified by comparing the mass spectra with the previously reported ones
[18, 19].
Results
Construction of Enrichment Cultures
of Tellurite-Reducing Bacteria
Enrichment L was constructed by repeated transfer of
cultures into TSB containing 1 mM tellurite. The changes
of tellurite concentrations in water phase of Enrichment L
are presented in Fig. 1a. In the first batch, 1 mM tellurite
was removed almost completely in about 2 days. The
enrichment culture turned black, reflecting the accumulation of elemental tellurium and therefore the tellurite
reduction. Although tellurite removal rate decreased temporarily in the second batch, constant tellurite removal rate
was achieved after the third batch.
Enrichment H was constructed by repeated transfer of the
culture into TSB with higher tellurite concentrations (Fig. 1b).
Although Enrichment H removed 5 mM tellurite completely
in the third batch, it showed less removal for 10 mM tellurite
in the fourth batch incubation. In the final batch test, the tellurite concentration decreased from 20 mM to 12 mM within
3 days. The enrichment culture showed a black color, confirming the tellurite reduction. Furthermore, a garlic-like odor,
indicating the formation of volatile tellurium compounds, was
recognized during cultivation.
Viable counts of total heterotrophic and tellurite-resistant bacteria in the enrichment cultures are presented in
Table 1. Tellurite resistant bacteria were only 2.4 % of all
heterotrophs in the sample from the metal refinery plant.
However, the ratio increased considerably with progress of
the enrichment. At the end of the enrichment, almost
all bacteria resisted 1 mM tellurite in both Enrichment
L and H.
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Total heterotrophsa
Tellurite resistant
bacteriab
7.6 9 106
1.8 9 105
3.6 9 107
Enrichment culture L
a
c
d
Day 2 in Fig. 1
Day 15 in Fig. 1
8.0 9 107
Enrichment culture H
After the first batch cultivationc
After the fifth batch cultivation
4.9 9 108
9.6 9 10
9.5 9 108
tellurite in sealed vials, and the headspace gas was analyzed. Both dimethyl telluride and dimethyl ditelluride
were detected from the gas phase of all bacterial cultures
whereas dimethyl tellurenyl sulfide were detected from the
gas phase of strains TI-2 and TI-3.
Tellurite removal rates of strains TI-1, TI-2, and TI-3
increased with tellurite concentrations in the medium up to
1 mM. Strain TI-1 reduced tellurite with a higher rate than
that of either strain TI-2 or strain TI-3 at the initial tellurite
concentrations of 0.5 mM and 1.0 mM. Almost equal tellurite removal rates were obtained by strains TI-2 and TI-3
at all tested concentrations (Fig. 4). As described above,
since tellurite removal at the initial concentration of
10 mM was low. Zero-order kinetic constants could not be
determined at this high concentration.
The tellurite removal rates of strains TI-1, TI-2, and
TI-3 under various conditions are depicted in Fig. 5.
A higher tellurite removal rate by strain TI-1 was
observed at low pH of 6.2 than that by either strain TI-2
or strain TI-3 (Fig. 5a). The maximum tellurite removal
rate by strain TI-1 was obtained at 35 C, whereas at
28 C by strains TI-2 and TI-3 (Fig. 5b). Tellurite
removal did not occur at 15 C by strain TI-2 or strain TI3, although 24 % was removed by strain TI-1 (data not
shown). Tellurite removal rate by strains TI-2 and TI-3
drastically decreased concomitantly with increasing NaCl
concentration, although no significant decrease of tellurite
1.2 9 10
Strain TI-1
Strain TI-2
Strain TI-3
Source
Enrichment culture L
Enrichment culture L
Enrichment culture H
Shape
Rod
Rod
Rod
Gram stain
Motility
Catalase activity
Oxidase activity
OF test
Stenotrophomonas
maltophilia
Ochrobactrum
anthropi
Ochrobactrum
anthropi
99.3 %
99.9 %
99.9 %
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Discussion
In this study, we isolated bacterial strains with high tellurite-resistance capability for the final goal of tellurium
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