Method of separating heavy metals.

摘要

To separate heavy metals from contaminated materials, a mixture of degradable organic matter (24) and water is fed to the contaminated material to be mixed together as a suspension with oxygen cover. The solubility of the heavy metals is increased by reducing the pH value of the suspension by the microorganisms in the organic matter (24) which form organic acids (28) and convert the heavy metals into a watery phase (26). The matter predominantly free of heavy metals is separated from the watery phase (26) and the watery phase containing heavy metals (26) is passed to a biogas reactor (20). The solubility of the heavy metals in the watery phase (26) is reduced by biological degrading of the organic acids (28) by oxygen exclusion in the biogas reactor, for heavy metal compounds to be formed by the heavy metals which dissolve with difficulty, to be separated from the watery phase (26) free of heavy metals.