Immobilization of cadmium by Burkholderia sp. QY14 through modified microbially induced phosphate precipitation

Microbially induced phosphate precipitation (MIPP) is an advanced bioremediation technology to immobilize heavy metals. An indigenous bacterium QY14 with the function of mineralization isolated from Cd contaminated farmland soil was identified as Burkholderia ambifaria. The minimum inhibitory concentration value for QY14 was 550 mg/L for soluble Cd concentration. This study found that the addition of 10 mM Ca²⁺ during MIPP process could significantly increase the removal ratio of Cd, and the maximum removal ratio of Cd with 10 mM Ca²⁺ and without Ca²⁺ in solution was 99.97% and 76.14%, respectively. The increase of acid phosphatase activity and the formation of precipitate containing calcium caused by 10 mM Ca²⁺ addition contributed the increase of Cd removal efficiency. The results of SEM-EDS, FTIR and XRD showed that Cd was removed by forming Cd containing hydroxyapatite (Cd-HAP). In addition, the dissolution experiment showed the Cd release ratio of Cd-HAP (0.01‰ at initial pH 3.0 of solution) was lower than Cd-absorbed HAP, indicating that Cd was more likely removed by the formation of Ca_10-xCd_x(PO₄)₆(OH)₂ solid solution. Our findings revealed MIPP-based bioremediation supplied with 10 mM Ca²⁺ could increase the Cd removal and could potentially be applied for Cd remediation.