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Automotive wastewater-treatment sludge secondary resource

Sludge generated by wastewater treatment at an automotive factory, represented by the nickel- and zinc-bearing feed studied by Yagnentkovsky et al. (2009). The paper does not identify the factory or resolve its individual contributing processes and mineral phases. This secondary-resource identity is distinct from untreated wastewater, municipal sewage sludge, pure nickel or zinc compounds, and spent automotive exhaust catalysts. The selected feed does not define all automotive treatment sludges, and no constituent-element criticality is inherited.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Two-stage leaching with culture-generated acid

bioleaching Microbial

Associated Organisms: Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans (NCBITaxon:930)

Sulfur-grown Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans DSM 11478 generated acidic medium used to mobilize nickel and zinc from prepared sludge in a separate laboratory column. This is solubilization, not isolated-product recovery.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The feed was dried, ground and sieved to 100-200 mesh. Living cultures in iron-free 9K medium operated on sulfur pearls at 30 degrees C. Sludge columns received biogenerated acid at initial pH 1, 1.5 or 2, with 1, 2 or 4% solids; duplicate assays used 360 mL lixiviant and nominal 15 mL/h delivery. Cell removal before leaching, leach temperature and an explicit endpoint time were not reported. AAS measured liquid metals. DSMZ confirms DSM 11478 as Tth04; the organism CURIE below is species-level.
Curated Evidence Points:
Methods and Figures 1-3 support culture-associated acid generation and subsequent leaching. Figure 3 shows reduced mobilization at higher solids with pH-2 lixiviant.
No sterile or commercial-acid comparison is reported. Biofilm attachment was inferred from repeated acidification. Conflicting sulfur-loading and dilution-rate wording, and ambiguous Figure 1 proton units, prevent an exact optimum claim. Figure 3 percentages lack a stated calculation and error-bar definition. No isolated product, complete balance or deployment was demonstrated.
Context_only Source: dsm_11478
Catalogue identity confirms the paper’s named strain; it does not establish assay causality.

Sources & References

  1. yagnentkovsky_2009: Yagnentkovsky, Viera and Donati (2009). Recovery of Nickel and Zinc Using Biogenerated Sulphuric Acid. Advanced Materials Research 71-73:649-652. DOI 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.71-73.649. Full repository PDF, methods pp. 649-650 and Figures 1-3, inspected; PDF p. 5 is an appended reference-link page.
    https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.71-73.649 (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. dsm_11478: DSMZ culture catalogue: Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans DSM 11478, strain Tth04; Brazilian mine-drainage origin and Donati collection history. Culture-collection context, not a new sludge experiment.
    https://www.dsmz.de/collection/catalogue/details/culture/DSM-11478 (accessed 2026-10-11)
  3. ncbi_thiooxidans: NCBI Taxonomy 930: Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, species. This taxon ID does not identify the experimental strain DSM 11478.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=930&mode=Info (accessed 2026-10-11)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-11T11:40:45.616513Z Codex (GPT-6; Codex) CREATE Created the automotive wastewater-treatment sludge record and narrowly scoped two-stage biogenic-acid leaching evidence, retaining missing controls, uncertain biomass carryover, source inconsistencies and laboratory-only outcome.

Record source: data/records/automotive-wastewater-treatment-sludge.yaml