Applied Microbiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Sediment Treatment for Increasing Ph and Reducing Heavy Metal Cadmium (Cd) In Acid Mine Drainage

Fahruddin, Asadi Abdullah and Nursiah La Nafie

Acid mine drainage could be treated by using wetland sediment as the source of sulfate-reducing bacteria for increasing pH and reducing heavy metal. The purpose of this study is to compare between the abilities of mangrove and swamp sediments in increasing pH and reducing heavy metal cadmium in acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage experiment was conducted in a reactor by adding sediment (20%) and compost (10%), then incubated for 30 days. The pH changes were measured using pH meter, while the cadmium content was analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS), both was measured on the fifth day. The result showed that swamp sediment increased pH to 6.8, while mangrove sediment increased pH to 6.2 at the end of incubation. The results for cadmium reduction also indicated that swamp sediment (P2) could reduce cadmium from 1.88 to 0.17 ppm (90.96%), while mangrove sediment (P1) reduced cadmium from 1.72 to 0.24 ppm (86%). In addition, treatment only with compost (P3) and treatment without sediment and compost to control (P4) did not show any significant changes both for pH increase meant or cadmium reducement.