PROCESS FOR THE TREATMENT OF CONTAMINATED MATERIAL

摘要

A process for the decontamination of a medium comprising a particulate material contaminated with one or more metal species, the process comprising the steps of treating a body of the said medium with microbially produced sulphuric acid so as to solubilise themetal species as a metal sulphate; treating the leached metal sulphate by a bioprecipitation process which converts the said sulphate to an insoluble sulphide; separating hydrogen sulphide produced during the bioprecipitation from the insoluble metal sulphide; and oxidising the separated hydrogen sulphide to form a reusable source of a sulphur-containing ingredient.