Bioleaching for extracting heavy metals from electronic waste sludge

Abstract The electronic industry is highly developed in China, large amounts of wastewater that contains heavy metals is always produced, and heavy metals are transferred into sludge after the water treatment. In recent years, the efficient and harmless treatment of sludge has received much more attention, especially for electronic waste sludge. Considering the need for environmental protection and resource recovery, this chapter explores the bioleaching method for extracting heavy metals from electronic waste sludge. First, the sources of different electronic waste sludge and the species and content of heavy metals in the electronic waste sludge were analyzed. Second, the species of microorganisms that were selected to do the bioleaching process were introduced, and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans was chosen to bioleach heavy metals from electronic waste sludge. The optimized conditions, bioleaching mechanisms, and effects were also discussed subsequently. Through the investigation of this chapter, it is important for safe disposal of the electronic waste sludge.