Thermophiles and their application in high temperature-biomining processes

Abstract:

Thermophiles, including moderate thermophiles and extreme thermophiles, mainly survive in natural geothermal environments, such as hot springs, volcanic vents and submarine hydrothermal vents, and artificial high temperature environments like reactors or wastewater discharge ports with high temperature. Thermophiles can grow at temperature of 40-80 ℃ and above. Many of them are acidophilic and have specific metabolism types, which endow them to be used into the high temperature-biomining processes. Biomining processes under high temperature show more advantages than traditional mesothermal biomining process, which can effectively leach out some of the refractory primary sulfide minerals, resolve passivation problem, therefore improve leaching rate. In this review, we summarized the physiological characteristics of main thermophiles used in biomining processes and their resistance mechanisms on high temperature, iron, copper, arsenic and other ions, furthermore, the developments and applications of thermophiles in biomining technology were presented.