METAL REMOVAL FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION

摘要

Removal of a target metal having an insoluble phosphate (e.g. actinides), is effected by passing the solution through a bioreactor containing an immobilized phosphatase-producing microorganism which has been cultivated using a culture medium containing an assimilable organic source of phosphorus and which has been primed with an element, other than the metal to be removed, having an insoluble phosphate so as to deposit the phosphate of the priming element on cell surfaces of the microorganism. The priming element phosphates facilitates deposition of the target metal phosphate.