Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2012, 11, 848-852 Published Online August 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jmmce) Comparative Phosphorus Removal Capabilities of Eurotium herbarorium and Clostridium Species on Nigeria’s Agbaja Iron Ore Obotowo William Obot 1 , Charles Nwachukwu Anyakwo 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria 2 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria Email: obotowo2004@yahoo.com, charlesanyakwo@yahoo.com Received July 1, 2012; revised July 31, 2012; accepted August 15, 2012 ABSTRACT A study of phosphorus removal capabilities of Eurotium herbarorium and Clostridium species from Nigeria’s Agbaja iron ore was carried out. Iron ore sample was crushed, sieved to obtain 0.50 mm/0.25 mm particle size distribution and cultured with mineral oil medium to facilitate microbial growth. Fungi and bacteria that concurrently grew were sub- cultured in Sabouard dextrose agar and nutrient agar solutions that support fungal and bacterial growth, respectively, and characterized using standard procedures. Ore was exposed to these microbes to effect phosphorus removal in stan- dard media and later analyzed at weekly interval using the standard volumetric ammonium phospho-molybdate method. The fermentation broth media were analyzed for iron, copper, cadmium, zinc, nickel, manganese and lead using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The microorganisms markedly removed phosphorus from the ore with 61.48% and 69.20%, respectively. For the fungus pH remained in the acidic region and basic for the bacterium. Trace elements analyses of the initial and final ore-containing media recorded marked reduction in the concentration of these elements. A plausible explanation that is supported by literature is that the microorganisms accumulated them. This probably ac- counts for the drastic decrease in fungal biomass and bacterial density with the concomitant decrease in phosphorus removal observed towards the end. Keywords: Microbes; Culture; Biodegradation; Trace; Metal; Biomass 1. Introduction The Nigeria’s Agbaja iron ore reserve with its rich iron content 47.5% - 51.50% Fe [1] is the country’s largest but had long been abandoned due to its high phosphor- rus status which researchers variously estimated at about 0.76 - 0.89 wt% [2,3]. The mineralogy of Agbaja iron ore revealed abundant goethite with minute magnetite and some hematite, pyrite, siderite and chlorite also identi- fied Uwadiale [4]. A successful removal of phosphorus to a metallurgical acceptable level, therefore, from the over 1.2 billion tonnes of ore reserve Uwadiale [5] can mean an economic boom for the country with quite sub- stantial multiplier effects in the areas of job and wealth creation for the downstream sectors of iron and steel in- dustry. The negative effects of phosphorus in high quality steels namely: the effect of steel brittleness coupled with the effect of strong primary segregation during solidifi- cation of castings and the formation of high phosphorus brittle streaks between metal grains which impede plastic deformation are undesirable and therefore should be minimized as much as possible. Thus, for high quality steels, the phosphorus acceptable level is in the range of 0.020 - 0.030 wt% or even less Kudrin [6]. A flurry of research activities into the removal of phosphorus from the Nigeria’s Agbaja iron ore com- menced in the eighties. Researchers predominantly ap- plied the conventional froth flotation technique for the removal of phosphorus but failed because the phosphorus is not associated with the gangue but is in bonding with the iron [3,7]. An evolving trend in mineral processing currently gaining popularity is the use of microbes and the works of researchers in this regards are well docu- mented [8-10]. The current work therefore intends to adopt the micro- bial degradation approach for comparative investigations of the phosphorus removal capabilities of Eurotium her- barorium and Clostridium species on Nigeria’s Agbaja iron ore. This approach is cheap, environmental friendly and has a potential for easy incorporation into existing iron and steel making technologies. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. JMMCE