Biobenefication of Mineral Resources – Models of Bacterial Adhesion to a Mineral Surface

Abstract

The utility of microorganisms as surface modifiers in bioenrichment processes has recently attracted a lot of attention. The surface properties of minerals and microorganisms play a major role in determining the adhesion of microorganisms to minerals, and thus the effectiveness of bioleaching, biofloculation and bioflotation processes. For predicting bacterial adhesion Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) models and extended DLVO (XDLVO) models are used. The classical DLVO theory explains the electric double layer (EL) on the particle surface and the Liftshitz-van der Waals (LW) interaction. In XDLVO theory, solvation forces have been added to account for Lewis acid-base (AB) interactions.