嗜热微生物包括中度嗜热微生物和极端嗜热微生物,主要栖息于热泉、火山口、海底热液喷口、高温反应器以及工厂高温废水排放区等自然或人为产生的高温环境中。它们可以生活在40-80°C、甚至更高的温度中,其中有些具备嗜酸性及特殊的代谢类型,在高温生物冶金过程中具有应用潜力。高温生物冶金较传统中温生物冶金更具优势,其能浸出某些难处理矿、解决浸矿过程的钝化问题,以及提高浸出效率等,目前已引起了生物冶金工业的重视。本文概述了应用于生物冶金的主要嗜热微生物的生理特点、耐热机制以及对铁、铜和砷等离子的耐受机制,进一步介绍了嗜热微生物在高温生物冶金中的发展及应用。
Thermophiles, including moderate thermophiles and extreme thermophiles, mainly survive in natural geothermal environments, such as hot springs, volcanic vents and submarine hydrothermal vents, and artificial high temperature environments like reactors or wastewater discharge ports with high temperature. Thermophiles can grow at temperature of 40-80 ℃ and above. Many of them areacidophilic and have specific metabolism types, which endow them to be used into the high temperature-biomining processes. Biomining processes under high temperature show more advantages than traditional mesothermal biomining process, which can effectively leach out some of the refractory primary sulfide minerals, resolve passivation problem, therefore improve leaching rate. In this review, we summarized the physiological characteristics of main thermophiles used in biomining processes and their resistance mechanisms on high temperature, iron, copper, arsenic and other ions, furthermore, the developments and applications of thermophiles in biomining technology were presented.