CMMMech
CMMMech > Secondary resource > Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking dust

Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking dust secondary resource

Dust generated by basic oxygen steelmaking, represented here by a stockpiled material from a historical iron and steelworks at Teesside, UK. This is a mixed processing residue, distinct from basic oxygen furnace slag, electric-arc-furnace dust and blast-furnace cast-house dust. The sampled dust contains iron, zinc and other elements; neither its constituents nor the paper's terminology establishes a criticality designation for the whole resource. Laboratory leaching evidence applies to the prepared source sample.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Acidophile-associated leaching of prepared basic oxygen steelmaking dust

bioleaching Microbial

Associated Organisms: Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (NCBITaxon:920)

An adapted DSM 583 culture oxidized supplied ferrous iron and was associated with faster early dissolution of selected elements from dust in acidified batch assays. Acid and uninoculated iron-containing controls also leached the dust; later control values converged with or exceeded inoculated values for several elements. This supports a conditional early kinetic effect, rather than universal microbial superiority. Recirculating laboratory columns showed dissolution at low solids loading and failed by clogging at higher loading. Dissolved-metal measurements do not establish an isolated recovered product or industrial deployment.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Methods 2.1-2.3: stockpiled BOS-D was air-dried, ground, sieved below 2 mm and autoclaved at 121 degrees C for 15 min. The named culture had been adapted to 5% w/v BOS-D. Dust was added after two days of precultivation; iron oxidation and redox potential were activity proxies, not direct growth or molecular-causality measurements. The authors report 1% w/v solids, pH 1.75, and 1% w/v energy source and inoculum for batch assays; the unusual mass-based inoculum wording is retained as unresolved. Culture maintenance is described at 30 degrees C and 150 rpm. Medium preparation specifies 11.1 g FeSO4.7H2O per litre and about 2.22 g/L Fe(II), so the 1% energy-source shorthand is not an exact interchangeable recipe. The pH was readjusted on monitoring days with 5 M sulfuric acid; this is the acid reagent concentration, not the final leachate concentration. Uninoculated iron-containing and acid-only batches were included. The article does not report a ferric-iron-matched sterile comparator or an acid-addition mass balance. Duplicate conditions are reported, with figure captions stating SD or RSD no greater than 20%; plotted curves do not display individual replicates. Filtered leachates were analyzed by ICP-MS and normalized to initial feed inventory measured by aqua-regia digestion. No analysis dates are supplied for native concentration-cell curation. Numerical outcomes remain qualified prose.
Curated Evidence Points:
Methods 2.1-2.3 and Figure 1 identify the prepared dust and named culture, with rapid ferrous-iron depletion and increased redox potential relative to the uninoculated control. Figure 2 compares inoculated, iron-containing abiotic and acid-only leaching over 14 days after dust addition; its time zero is culture day 2. The initially greater inoculated extraction is a within-study observation under these acidified, supplemented conditions. Generic reaction equations for metallic Cu and Zn are proposed chemistry, not source-specific identification of their host phases.
Figure 2 limits the early-advantage claim: later uninoculated curves approach or exceed the inoculated curve for several metals, including Cu, Zn and Mn. Repeated acid adjustment, iron supplementation and autoclaving prevent attributing all dissolution to cells or transferring the outcome to untreated dust. Table 1 shows different autoclaved and non-autoclaved inventories, including some higher or equal values; these measurements do not prove the text's causal claim of autoclaving losses. No matched ferric control establishes a unique biological pathway, and ORP is not proof of strain identity or cell proliferation.
Methods 2.3 and Figure 3 describe a separate hybrid sequence: 2 h with 1:1 choline chloride-ethylene glycol, 12.5% w/v solids, pH 4, room temperature and 150 rpm; its residue was air-dried and autoclaved before the 14-day microbial stage. Figure 3 stacks chemical and subsequent biological fractions and compares these with a 3-day direct biological assay. Different loadings, durations and pretreated inventories prevent a matched efficiency comparison or attribution of the chemical fraction to microbes. The hybrid route increased several dissolved fractions but did not improve the plotted Y total over direct bioleaching, and the Cu bar shows no visible additional biological contribution. The article reports statistically significant approach differences only for Zn and Mn at its stated P < 0.01 threshold; no universal significant microbial advantage or isolated product follows.
Methods 2.4 and Figures 4-5 report duplicate 5 cm by 30 cm PVC columns with 10 g dust and a 1 L inoculated reservoir, 30 degrees C reservoir temperature, 1.33 L/min aeration and 40 or 80 mL/min recirculation after two days of culture preparation. Monitoring days extend to culture day 23, equivalent to 21 days of dust leaching. Both circulation rates gave similar plotted outcomes. At 40 mL/min, Table 3 reports day-21 dissolution of 69% Y, 48% Ce, 53% Nd, 37% Li, 32% Co, 40% Cu, 36% Zn, 39% Al and 41% Mn on its stated initial-inventory basis. These are source-reported soluble fractions, not independent remeasurements.
The column experiment lacks a displayed matched uninoculated column time course, so it does not independently establish microbial enhancement. Higher solids caused clogging: Methods 2.4 describes failure at 5% w/v, while Results 3.2 also discusses a 20% water-flow test that did not reproduce culture-flow behavior. Permeability, precipitates and viscosity are proposed explanations, not established causes. Most column extractions were lower than batch results, and no significant effect of the two recirculation rates was reported. Table 3 uses initial Zn 18,300 mg/kg whereas Table 1 gives 18,000 mg/kg for autoclaved dust. Text rounds day-21 Li and Co amounts differently from Table 3 and duplicates its extracted-amount paragraph. The abstract's aggregate 39% is not an element-specific yield. Table 3 reports a lower summed dissolved amount at day 21 than day 11, while REE amounts continue to rise; an across-element optimal stopping time is therefore not established. No complete sampling-adjusted material balance, isolated-metal product or demonstrated operating plant is reported.
Context_only Source: dsm583
The live collection lists DSM 583 as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, consistent with the primary paper. This verifies the cited catalogue identity, not the purity or genomic identity of the experimentally adapted stock.
NCBITaxon:920 resolves the species name. It is not a DSM 583 strain identifier and does not establish the mechanism on its own.

Sources & References

  1. kara2024_bos_dust: Tezyapar Kara, Huntington, Simmons, Wagland and Coulon (2024), Extracting metal ions from basic oxygen steelmaking dust by using bio-hydrometallurgy, Heliyon 10(11), e32437; DOI 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32437. Methods 2.1-2.6, Results 3.1-3.2, Tables 1-3 and Figures 1-5.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32437 (accessed 2026-10-11)
  2. dsm583: DSMZ catalogue DSM 583, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans; collection identity corroborates the paper's named stock, without authenticating its adapted culture.
    https://www.dsmz.de/collection/catalogue/details/culture/DSM-583 (accessed 2026-10-11)
  3. ncbi_ferrooxidans: NCBI Taxonomy 920, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, species-level identity.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=920&mode=Info (accessed 2026-10-11)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-11T16:11:04Z Codex (GPT-6) CREATE Created the distinct BOF steelmaking dust resource from complete primary text, tables and original figure images. Preserved conditional early enhancement, later chemical-control convergence, hybrid-stage boundaries, inconsistent inventories and unsuccessful higher-loading columns.

Record source: data/records/basic-oxygen-furnace-steelmaking-dust.yaml