Simultaneous Sulfate Reduction and Metal Precipitation in an Inverse Fluidized Bed Reactor

The sulfate reducing process has become an attractive method for the production of sulfide to precipitate metals since most of these streams also contain sulfate, which is the electron acceptor and, in less common cases, chemical oxygen demand which is the electron donor of sulfate reducing bacteria. The main objective of this thesis was to elucidate the factors affecting simultaneous sulfate reduction and precipitation of heavy metals in an inverse fluidized bed reactor (IFB) reactor in order to optimize the metal recovery from wastewaters such as acid mine drainage (AMD).