China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The discharge of waste from the non-ferrous metallurgical industry continues to grow, posing increasingly severe environmental challenges. Traditional physicochemical treatment technologies, while effective, are associated with high costs. Biological agent technology has garnered attention in the field of non-ferrous metallurgical pollution treatment due to its advantages of cleanliness, sustainability, and low cost. It has been applied in soil remediation and wastewater treatment, yet a comprehensive review of its application progress is lacking. Through bibliometric analysis, it is found that research interest in biological agent technology has been climbing annually over the past two decades, especially in East China, Northwest China, and Northeast China. In terms of application, representative strategies include constructing strain-plant symbiotic systems and algae-bacteria symbiotic systems, supplemented by immobilization methods using porous carriers. Mechanistically, it has been clarified that microorganisms primarily adsorb heavy metals through cell wall adsorption, intracellular accumulation, and extracellular precipitation. In the future, in response to the interference of bacterial species, temperature, and pH values on this technology, efforts should be intensified in the research and development of novel biological agents, pilot-scale application testing, optimization of composite agent design strategies, and the development of new carrier materials. Additionally, given the inadequate and incomplete research on application mechanisms, it is advisable to couple metabolomics, transcriptomics, and isotope labeling to delve deeper into gene regulation mechanisms. This article systematically reviews the research hotspot, application status, and microbial mechanisms of biological agent technology in the treatment of non-ferrous metallurgical pollution, providing a theoretical reference for the improvement and practical application of this technology.