Bioremediation as a Sustainable and Circular Solution for Mining Waste Management and Bioenergy Generation
Sudeshna Dey, Akanshya Dash, Alok Prasad Das
Abstract
Extensive mining activities cause a significant social and environmental impact. Mining waste residues, especially low-grade ores and tailings, pose a serious environmental threat. The mining sector needs to move towards an environmentally friendly approach with zero waste technology. Metals and metalloids in mine waste contaminate the environment to a significant extent, affecting human life. Bioremediation of mining waste contaminants is one of the safest, least expensive, and most environmentally friendly approaches. Global energy consumption will continue to grow at a 4.6% annual pace, with developing nations accounting for more than 70% of this increase. This constant increase in both production and consumption has the unintended consequence of generating massive amounts of mining waste. Almost 0.4 tonnes of coal refuse are created for every tonne of coal produced. India is the world’s second-largest producer of coal mining waste and generates about 170 million tonnes of solid waste from mining every year, with growth projected to reach 300 million tonnes. A variety of native microorganisms including bacteria, archaea, and fungi are used to bioremediate diverse mining pollutants. Microorganisms have different underlying mechanisms to degrade these pollutants and can survive high metal concentrations. Bioremediation of mining waste with simultaneous bioenergy generation, in the form of biofuel and organic acids, holds promise as a circular- economy solution to ever-increasing mining pollution. This chapter describes recent advances in bioremediation technology-based approaches for mining waste treatment, pollution abatement, and simultaneous resource recovery and bioenergy generation.