Evaluation of the Use of Burkolderia Caribensis Bacteria for the Reduction of Phosphorus Content in Iron Ore Particles

Abstract

With the growing industrialization, there is a constant increase in the world demand for iron ore, thus implying an increase in the volume of mining, resulting in the extraction of ores with higher levels of silicon, phosphorus and sulfur impurities. Therefore, it is highly relevant to use beneficiation techniques that allow the use of iron ores with high levels of impurities, and it is known that a widely used alternative is to perform a pre-treatment of iron ore particles in order to reach the limit of acceptable phosphorus before application in steel production. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the pre-treatment process of iron ore particles aiming at reducing the phosphorus content using the bacterial strain burkolderia caribensis in contaminated iron ore samples. Through the rotatable central composite design technique, it was possible to evaluate the best conditions for the use of the bacterial strain to reduce the phosphorus content in the particles. The results indicated that the developed process has relevant applicability. The results contribute to a better understanding of the use of the bacterial strain as a pretreatment process to reduce the phosphorus content of iron ore particles and also to the development of new cleaner technologies.

Keywords
Microwave; Leaching; Reduction of phosphorus; Iron ore