Fig. 2
From: Bio-accelerated weathering of ultramafic minerals with Gluconobacter oxydans
Leaching dunite at 1% pulp density with wild-type (WT) G. oxydans biolixiviant improves leaching of magnesium by 20-fold when compared to leaching with deionized water (control). However, the G. oxydans biolixiviant is only 6% better than just gluconic acid at the same pH. Bioleaching of dunite at 1% pulp density shaking at 22 ˚C for 24 h was performed with wild-type G. oxydans biolixiviant, gluconic acid diluted to the same pH with deionized water, and a deionized water control. Panels (A) to (E) show leaching concentrations and extraction efficiencies of Mg, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni. Wild-type G. oxydans biolixiviants slightly improved metal leaching compared to gluconic acid across all metals. Stars denote significant difference between gluconic acid leaching and wild-type biolixiviant leaching by a Welch’s two-sample t-test, where, p < 0.05 (*), p < 0.01 (**), p < 0.001 (***).
