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    Interactions of phosphate solubilising microorganisms with natural rare-earth phosphate minerals: a study utilizing Western Australian monazite

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    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Corbett, Melissa
    Eksteen, Jacques
    Niu, Xi-Zhi
    Croue, Jean-Philippe
    Watkin, Elizabeth
    Date
    2017
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Corbett, M. and Eksteen, J. and Niu, X. and Croue, J. and Watkin, E. 2017. Interactions of phosphate solubilising microorganisms with natural rare-earth phosphate minerals: a study utilizing Western Australian monazite. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering. 40 (6): pp. 929-942.
    Source Title
    Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering
    DOI
    10.1007/s00449-017-1757-3
    ISSN
    1615-7591
    Faculty
    Science and Engineering
    School
    School of Biomedical Sciences, CHIRI Biosciences
    Western Australian School of Mines
    Curtin Water Quality Research Centre, Department of Chemistry
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52729
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Many microbial species are capable of solubilising insoluble forms of phosphate and are used in agriculture to improve plant growth. In this study, we apply the use of known phosphate solubilising microbes (PSM) to the release of rare-earth elements (REE) from the rare-earth phosphate mineral, monazite. Two sources of monazite were used, a weathered monazite and mineral sand monazite, both from Western Australia. When incubated with PSM, the REE were preferentially released into the leachate. Penicillum sp. released a total concentration of 12.32 mg L-1 rare-earth elements (Ce, La, Nd, and Pr) from the weathered monazite after 192 h with little release of thorium and iron into solution. However, cultivation on the mineral sands monazite resulted in the preferential release of Fe and Th. Analysis of the leachate detected the production of numerous low-molecular weight organic acids. Gluconic acid was produced by all microorganisms; however, other organic acids produced differed between microbes and the monazite source provided. Abiotic leaching with equivalent combinations of organic acids resulted in the lower release of REE implying that other microbial processes are playing a role in solubilisation of the monazite ore. This study demonstrates that microbial solubilisation of monazite is promising; however, the extent of the reaction is highly dependent on the monazite matrix structure and elemental composition.

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