Bioleaching of a high iron content kaolin by Aspergillus niger: The effects of organic acids biosynthesis

In this work, bioleaching of iron from a kaolin sample was carried out using two different strains of Aspergillus niger, and the effects of strain type, pulp density, and addition time of clay on the iron removal were investigated using a full factorial design. It is concluded that strain type has the most significant effect on the iron removal. Also, the highest removal extent was 42.8% that was achieved by using the strain isolated from pistachio shell at the pulp density of 20 g/l, when the clay was added at the beginning of the experiments. The results showed that for the experiments in which the clay was added in the first day of cultivation, the average organic acids concentration (citric acjd: 5.6 g/l, and oxalic acid: 4.54 g/l) were higher in comparison to those experiments in which the clay was added in the third day (citric acid: 5.25 g/l, and oxalic acid: 2.87).