• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.635-641
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• 2005

Batch experiments were performed to evaluate the effect of sulfate reduction on methane production and reductive dechlorination, both compete for hydrogen with sulfate reduction. Dechlorination was inhibited by sulfate reduction at lower hydrogen concentration because their threshold values for hydrogen are similar (2 nM). Unlike methane production mainly inhibited transformation of cDCE to ethene, sulfate reduction inhibited the initial dechlorination step, PCE reduction into cDCE as well as cDCE dechlorination. The presence of sulfate eliminated methanogens as hydrogen competitor because of its high threshold value of 10 nM. When sulfate coexisted with PCE, dechlorination efficiency was not affected by the increase of seed concentration as both dechlorination and sulfate reduction were stimulated simultaneously by the increased seeding culture.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2015

The goal of this study was to identify relationships between the composition of sulfate reducing bacterial assemblages and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) patterns in rice paddy and dry farming soils. Samples of organic farming soils, conventional farming soils, and dry field farming soils were collected in August and November. Analyses of the soil chemical composition revealed similar total nitrogen, total carbon and total inorganic phosphorus levels; however, the moisture content and total carbon were higher than in the other soils in both August and November, respectively. Sulfate reducing bacteria utilizing lactic acid were more widely distributed than those that used acetic acid, and the number of sulfate reducing bacteria in organic farming soil was most abundant. Phylogenetic analysis based on 181 clones revealed that most showed low similarity with cultured sulfate reducing bacteria, but more than 90% similarity with an uncultured sulfate reducing bacteria isolated from the environment. T-RFLP analysis revealed that fragments of 91, 357, 395, and 474 bp were most common, and the community structure of sulfate reducing bacteria changed seasonally.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.210-224
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• 2003

Sulfate reduction is a microbiological process which occurs ubiquitously in anaerobic marine environment. Sulfate reducing bacteria play a significant role in anaerobic decomposition of organic matter and regeneration of inorganic nutrients which supports the primary production in the water column (i.e., benthic-pelagic coupling) and, in special case, could be responsible for the harmful algal bloom in the coastal marine environment. Summary of the sulfate reduction rates reported in various marine sedimentary environments revealed that supply of organic substrates and presence of various electron acceptors (i.e., $O_2$, NO$_{3}$$^{[-10]}$ , Fe(III) and Mn(IV), etc.) for other aerobic and anaerobic respiration directly affect the sulfate reduction rate and relative significance of sulfate reduction in organic matter mineralization. Significance of temperature, macrophytes and bioturbation is discussed as factors controlling supply of organic substrates and distribution of electron acceptors. Finally, we suggest studies on the anaerobic microbiological processes associated with biogeochemical element cycles in the coastal environments of Korea where massive operation of organic enriched fish cage farm, frequent occurrence of toxic algal bloom and hypoxia and conservation of tidal flat are of major environmental issues.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.31-34
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• 1990

Dibenzothiophene, crude oil and bunker C oil were used in the microbial desulfurization experiments using thermophilic and mesophilic strains of Desulfovibrio and Desulfotomaculum. Mesophilic Desulforvibrio desulfuricans M6 showed the degrees of sulfur removal about 42% and 17% from dibenzothiophene and crude oil, respectively. Thermophilic Desulfovibrio thermophilus showed the degrees of sulfur removal about 68% and 33% from dibenzothiophene and bunker C oil. The strains of Desulfotomaculum were much less efficient than strains of Desulfovibrio. The latter have more complex and stronger gydrogen metabolism. These results showed that desulfurization is closely related to the hydrogen metabolism of the sulfate reducing bacteria.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.153-157
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• 2004

다양한 혐기성 조건에서 다환방향족탄화수소(PAHs)로 오염된 토양의 미생물 분해 연구를 수행하였다. 대표적인 다환방향족탄화수소인 phenanthrene과 fluorene을 토양과 물에 오염시켜서 약 100일 동안 저감정도를 관찰하였고, 실제 다환방향족탄화수소로 오염된 현장 토양을 이용 혐기성하에서 다환방향족탄화수소의 생분해 가능성을 확인하였다. 미생물 접종원은 혐기성 조건에서 다환방향족탄화수소에 노출시킨 슬러리가 사용되었다. 황산염 환원조건, 질산염 환원조건, 메탄생성조건 등의 다양한 혐기성 조건에서 실험을 수행한 결과, 메탄생성조건 > 질산염 환원조건 > 황산염 환원조건의 순서로 분해가 잘 일어났다. 또한 현장오염토양의 경우 34일간 처리 후 메탄생성조건에서 최대 72%의 분해율을 보였다.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2008

Two UASB reactors were operated to investigate the effect of high concentration of sulfate on anaerobic digestion of propionate using an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. An organic loading rate of $1.2kg\;COD/m^3{\cdot}d$ and a hydraulic retention time of 1.6 d were maintained during this study. In the absence of sulfate, the UASB reactor achieved about 95% removal of chemical oxygen demand whereas in the presence of $2,000\;SO_4^{2-}mg/L$, the COD removal rate decreased to 83% due probably to the inhibition of dissolved sulfide inhibition. Interactions between the methane producing bacteria (MPB) and sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) were measured to investigate the competition between MPB and SRB. The MPB consumed average 58% of the available electron donors at $COD/SO_4^{2-}$ ratio of 1. Propionate was consumed mainly by SRB, converting sulfate into sulfide and suppressing the methane production. The specific methanogenic activity (SMA) using acetate and propionate increased as microorganism acclimated to the substrate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.413-426
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• 2009

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of indigenous bacteria on geochemical behavior of toxic heavy metals in contaminated paddy soil near an abandoned mine. The effects of sulfate amendment to stimulate microbial sulfate reduction on heavy metal behaviors were also investigated. Batch-type experiments were performed with lactate or glucose as a carbon source to activate indigenous bacteria in the soil under anaerobic condition for 100 days. Sulfate (250 mg/L) was artificially injected at 60 days after the onset of the experiments. In the case of glucose supply, solution pH increased from 4.8 to 7.6 while pH was maintained at 7~8 in the lactate solution. The initial low pH in the case of glucose supply likely resulted in the enhanced extraction of Fe and most heavy metals at the initial experimental period. Lactate supply exerted no significant difference on the amounts of dissolved Zn, Pb, Ni and Cu between microbial and abiotic control slurries; however, lower Zn, Pb and Ni and higher Cu concentrations were observed in the microbial slurries than in the controls when glucose supplied. Sulfate amendment led to dramatic decrease in dissolved Cr and maintenance of dissolved As, both of which had gradually increased over time till the sulfate injection. Black precipitates formed in solution after sulfate amendment, and violarite($Fe^{+2}{Ni^{+3}}_2S_4$) was found with XRD analysis in the microbial precipitates. Conceivably the mineral might be formed after Fe(III) reduction and microbial sulfate reduction with coprecipitation of heavy metal. The results suggested that heavy metals which can be readily extracted from contaminated paddy soils may be stabilized in soil formation by microbial sulfate reduction.