bioleaching, molybdenum disulfide, catalyst residue Molybdenum disulfide, MoSz, is used as a catalyst in coal-oil coprocessing. For most processes using molybdenum catalysts to be economical, the molybdenum must be recovered and recycled. Chemical recovery schemes have been devised, but typically recover only a fraction of the molybdenum. There are reports in the literature that bacteria can ox...

The microbiological oxidation of synthetic chalcocite and covellite has been investigated using an adapted strain of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. Biodegradation of chalcocite was found to be 90 to 100% and that of covellite 45 to 60%. Optimum conditions for the oxidation of chalcocite were: pH, 1.7 to 2.3; temperature, 35 C; and ferric iron concentration in the range of 0.004 to 0.01 M. For covel...