• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.431-439
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• 2014

The purposes of this research were to investigate the enrichment of metal-reducing bacteria from KURT groundwater and the identification of the microbial diversity by 16S rRNA as well as to examine microbial Fe(III)/Mn(IV) reduction and to analyze morphological features of interactions between microbes and precipitates and their mineralogical composition. To cultivate metal-reducing bacteria from groundwater sampled at the KURT in S. Korea, different electron donors such as glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate and Fe(III)-citrate as an electron accepter were added into growth media. The enriched culture was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for the diversity of microbial species. The effect of electron donors (i.e., glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate) and electron acceptors (i.e., akaganeite, manganese oxide) on microbial iron/manganese reduction and biomineralization were examined using the 1st enriched culture, respectively. SEM, EDX, and XRD analyses were used to determine morphological features, chemical composition of microbes and mineralogical characteristics of the iron and manganese minerals. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, the four species, Fusibacter, Desulfuromonas, Actinobacteria, Pseudomonas sp., from KURT groundwater were identified as anaerobic metal reducers and these microbes precipitated metals outside of cells in common. XRD and EDX analyses showed that Fe(III)-containing mineral, akaganeite (${\beta}$-FeOOH), reduced into Fe(II)/Fe(III)-containing magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) and Mn(IV)-containing manganese oxide (${\lambda}-MnO_2$) into Mn(II)-containing rhodochrosite ($MnCO_3$) by the microbes. These results implicate that microbial metabolism and respiratory activities under anaerobic condition result in reduction and biomineralization of iron and manganese minerals. Therefore, the microbes cultivated from groundwater in KURT might play a major role to reduce various metals from highly toxic, mobile to less toxic, immobile.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.279-287
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• 2011

In order to identify if bacteria surviving in soils and groundwater can change the oxidation/reduction potential of groundwater, Eh values of solution that contained bacteria were measured for 2 weeks. The Eh values of the solution reacted with sulfate-reducing bacteria decreased from -120 mV to -500 mV in 5 days, and $Desulfuricans$ was superior to $Vulgaris$ in reducing the solution. The Eh value was relatively higher for the solution containing $Shewanella$, iron-reducing bacteria, showing -400 mV. During the Eh decrease by the metal-reducing bacteria, a sulfide mineral such as mackinawite (FeS) started precipitating through the microbial reducing process for sulfate and ferric iron. These results show that the ORP of natrual groundwater may be sensitive to the geomicrobial respiration. In addition, a subsurface environment where groundwater is highly reduced and sulfide minerals are largely biogenerated may be a good place to retard the migration of oxidized radionu-clides by making them precipitated as reduced forms.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.477-477
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• 2012

미생물 연료전지는 정부가 추진하고 있는 신성장 동력사업의 녹색성장 정책에 부합하는 환경융합 신기술로써 일상생활에서 배출되는 하 폐수와 같은 유기물질을 전자공여체로 이용하여 전기에너지를 생산 할 수 있다는 점에서 각광받고 있다. 미생물 연료전지는 산화전극부의 미생물이 공급된 유기물질 을 분해하여 전자와 수소이온을 생성시키며 이들은 산소가 존재하는 환원전극부로 이동하여 물로 환원 됨 으로써 전기를 생성한다. 전기 화학적 성능의 향상을 위해 미생물 연료전지에서는 환원전극부에 서의 산소와 전자 및 수소이온의 빠른 환원반응을 유도해 주는 Pt촉매를 이용한다. 하지만 고가의 Pt 촉매는 미생물 연료전지의 현장적용을 위한 규모확장 시 초기비용이 증가되는 문제점을 초래한다. 이에 미생물 연료전지의 대체촉매 개발에 대한 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 화학적 연료전지에 관한 논문에서 연료전지의 촉매로 산소 환원반응에 높은 성능을 보이는 Co-N/C 형태의 Cobalt poly-pyrrole carbon가 제시 되었다. 이는 가격적인 측면에서는 Pt촉매의 약1/10배 정도 수준이지만 셀 성능은 Pt촉매의 95%정도의 효율을 보인다는 측면에서 향후 Pt 대체촉매로 가능성을 보여주는 새로운 비금속 촉매물질이다. Cobalt poly-pyrrole carbon이 Pt-catalsyt 셀 전압 성능 대비 약 66 %의 효율을 보였고 내부저항과 최대전력 밀도에 있어서도 촉매를 사용하지 않은 경우와 비금속 촉매의 성능보다 높음을 알 수 있었다. 본 연구는 Pt-catalsyt를 대체할 수 있는 저가의 산소환원 촉매물질 발굴을 위해 미생물연료전지에서 사용된 전례가 없으며 현재 화학전지의 촉매로 널리 쓰이고 있는 Cobalt poly-pyrrole carbon의 산소환원 촉매로써의 이용가능성을 평가하기 위해 실시되었으며, 평가한 결과는 첫 번째로 Cobalt poly-pyrrole carbon을 사용한 경우가 촉매를 사용하지 않은 경우와 비금속 촉매보다 환원 전극부에서의 원활한 환원작용이 진행되고 있음을 추측할 수 있으며 Pt-catalyst와 비교하였을 때 성능 대비 저렴한 가격으로 가격 경쟁력에 있어서 우월하다고 판단되었고 두 번째로 전기화학적 성능평가 및 EIS를 이용한 환원전극부의 내부저항 평가를 실시한 결과 셀 전압에 있어서 가장 많은 도말량 ($2.0mg/cm^2$)이 높은 성능을 보이고 있음을 알 수 있었다.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.798-807
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• 2008

Due to economic impairment derived from metal corrosion of pumping station installed around coastal area, it was needed for related cause-effect to be investigated for understanding practical corrosion behavior and providing proper control. This research was thus carried out to determine whether the microbe can influence on metal corrosion along with its control in the laboratory. For this study, groundwater was sampled from the underground pump station(i.e. I Gas Station) where corrosion was observed. Microbial diversity on the samples were then obtained by 16S rDNA methods. From this, microbial populations showing corrosion behaviors against metals were reported as Leptothrix sp.(Iron oxidizing) and Desulfovibrio sp.(Sulfur reducing) Iron oxidizing bacteria were dominantly participating in the corrosion of iron, while sulfate reducing bacteria were more preferably producing precipitate of iron. In case of galvanized steel and stainless steel, iron oxidizing bacteria not only enhanced the corrosion, but also generated its scale of precipitate. Sulfate reducing bacteria had zinc steel corroded greater extent than that of iron oxidizing bacteria. In the inactivation test, chlorine or UV exposure could efficiently control bacterial growth. However as the inactivation intensity being increased beyond a threshold level, corrosion rate was unlikely escalated due to augmented chemical effect. It is decided that microbial corrosion could be differently taken place depending upon type of microbes or materials, although they were highly correlated. It could be efficiently retarded by given disinfection practices.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2002

Microbial metal reduction influences the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and metals as well as plays an important role in the bioremediation of metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants. The use of bacteria to facilitate the production of magnetite nanoparticles and the formation of carbonate minerals may provide new biotechnological processes for material synthesis and carbon sequestration. Metal-reducing bacteria were isolated from a variety of extreme environments, such as deep terrestrial subsurface, deep marine sediments, water near Hydrothemal vents, and alkaline ponds. Metal-reducing bacteria isolated from diverse extreme environments were able to reduce Fe(III), Mn(IV), Cr(VI), Co(III), and U(VI) using short chain fatty acids and/or hydrogen as the electron donors. These bacteria exhibited diverse mineral precipitation capabilities including the formation of magnetite ($Fe_3$$O_4$), siderite ($FeCO_3$), calcite ($CaCO_3$), rhodochrosite ($MnCO_3$), vivianite [$Fe_3$($PO_4$)$_2$ .$8H_2$O], and uraninite ($UO_2$). Geochemical and environmental factors such as atmospheres, chemical milieu, and species of bacteria affected the extent of Fe(III)-reduction as well as the mineralogy and morphology of the crystalline iron mineral phases. Thermophilic bacteria use amorphous Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide plus metals (Co, Cr, Ni) as an electron acceptor and organic carbon as an electron donor to synthesize metal-substituted magnetite. Metal reducing bacteria were capable of $CO_2$conversion Into sparingly soluble carbonate minerals, such as siderite and calcite using amorphous Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide or metal-rich fly ash. These results indicate that microbial Fe(III)-reduction may not only play important roles in iron and carbon biogeochemistry in natural environments, but also be potentially useful f3r the synthesis of submicron-sized ferromagnetic materials.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.219-228
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• 2013

To understand characteristics of biogeochemical corrosion for the metal canisters that usually contain the radioactive wastes for a long-term period below the ground, some metal materials consisting of cast iron and copper were reacted for 3 months with D. desulfuricans, a sulfate-reducing bacterium, under a reducing condition. During the experiment, concentrations of dissolved metal ions were periodically measured, and then metal specimen and surface secondary products were examined using the electron microscopy to know the chemical and mineralogical changes of the original metal samples. The metal corrosion was not noticeable at the absence of D. desulfuricans, but it was relatively greater at the presence of the bacterium. In our experiment, darkish metal sulfides such as mackinawite and copper sulfide were the final products of biogeochemical metal corrosion, and they were easily scaled off the original specimen and suspended as colloids. For the copper specimen, in particular, there appeared an accelerated corrosion of copper in the presence of dissolved iron and bacteria in solution, probably due to a weakening of copper-copper binding caused by a growth of other phase, iron sulfide, on the copper surface.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.445-455
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• 2009

Microbiological sulfate reduction is the transformation of sulfate to sulfide catalyzed by the activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria using sulfate as an electron acceptor. Low solubility of metal sulfides leads to precipitation of the sulfides in solution. The effects of microbiological sulfate reduction on in-situ precipitation of arsenic and copper were investigated for the heavy metal-contaminated soil around the Songcheon Au-Ag mine site. Total concentrations of As, Cu, and Pb were 1,311 mg/kg, 146 mg/kg, and 294 mg/kg, respectively, after aqua regia digestion. In batch-type experiments, indigenous sulfate-reducing bacteria rapidly decreased sulfate concentration and redox potential and led to substantial removal of dissolved As and Cu from solution. Optimal concentrations of carbon source and sulfate for effective microbial sulfate reduction were 0.2~0.5% (w/v) and 100~200 mg/L, respectively. More than 98% of injected As and Cu were removed in the effluents from both microbial and chemical columns designed for metal sulfides to be precipitated. However, after the injection of oxygen-rich solution, the microbial column showed the enhanced long-term stability of in-situ precipitated metals when compared with the chemical column which showed immediate increase in dissolved As and Cu due to oxidative dissolution of the sulfides. Black precipitates formed in the microbial column during the experiments and were identified as iron sulfide and copper sulfide. Arsenic was observed to be adsorbed on surface of iron sulfide precipitate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2014

As we are trying to in-situ treat (purify or immobilize) heavy metals or radionuclides in groundwater, one of the geochemical factors to be necessarily considered is the value of oxidation/reduction potential (ORP) of the groundwater. A biogeochemical impact on the characteristic ORP change of groundwater taken from the KAERI underground was observed as a function of time by adding electron-donor (lactate), electron-acceptor (sulfate), and indigenous bacteria in a laboratory condition. There was a slight increase of Eh (slow oxidation) of the pure groundwater with time under a $N_2$-filled glove-box. However, most of groundwaters that contained lactate, sulfate or bacteria showed Eh decrease (reduction) characteristics. In particular, when 'Baculatum', a local indigenous sulfate-reducing bacterium, was injected into the KAERI groundwater, it turned to become a highly-reduced one having a decreased Eh to around -500 mV. Although the sulfate-reducing bacterium thus has much greater ability to reduce groundwater than other metal-reducing bacteria, it surely necessitated some dissolved ferrous-sulfate and finally generated sulfide minerals (e.g., mackinawite), which made a prediction for subsequent reactions difficult. As a result, the ORP of groundwater was largely affected even by a slight injection of nutrient without bacteria, indicating that oxidation state, solubility and sorption characteristics of dissolved contaminants, which are affected by the ORP, could be changed and controlled through in-situ biostimulation method.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.127-133
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• 2001

It can be known that from leachate generated in the initial stage of landfill there are a lot of undecomposed orgainc materials, its sulfur component reduces to sulfide ion by sulfur reducing microorgarnisms as an anaerobic digestion proceeds, the sulfide ion makes the leachate discolor to black by forming metal sulfide sol, on condition that much more equivalent of sulfide ion than that of metal ion is present, and the metal sulfide sol can be generated to the precipitates by forming black-colored particulates. Therefore, we can confirm the important possibility for the economic and efficient treatment of leachate that it can be passivated, provided that much more equivalent of sulfide ion is present in the reaction of sulfide ion and metal ion.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.207-208
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• 2009