Phosphorus Degradation Capability of Aspergillus terreus on Nigeria’s Agbaja Iron Ore
- 1 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology,Owerri, Nigeria.
- 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Uyo,Nigeria.
Abstract
A microbial fungus - Aspergillus terreus was used to degrade phosphorus in Nigeria’s Agbaja iron ore in the laboratory. The ore was first crushed to very tiny particles, screened using Shital test kits and 1.00/0.50mm, 0.50/0.25mm and 0.25/0.125mm particle size fractions were selected for the experiment. The microbes, obtained from the nascent remains on the ore environment, were cultured, used to inoculate 1g of sterile ore samples in 250ml conical flasks containing 100ml of equally sterile malt extract broth media and left to stand. At weekly interval, the samples were removed, treated through series of chemical reactions and ammonium phospho-molybdate precipitate was obtained. This was back-titrated with 0.1 NHCl to determine the amount of phosphorus left in samples and consequently, the amount removed. Findings reveal that A. terreus is capable of degrading the ore samples. pH monitoring reveals that the P degradation process proceeded in a culture media of increasing acidity. It is recommended to further study the chemistry of the mixture of culture media, ore samples and microbes to find parameters that favour the degradation process. Key words: Ore, microbes, screening, broth, degradation, accumulation, inoculati
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