STTR Phase I: Engineering Alternative Oxidation Activity in A. ferrooxidans For Enhanced Biohydrometallurgy Capabilities

STTR 第一阶段：设计氧化亚铁菌中的替代氧化活性以增强生物湿法冶金能力

• 批准号: 1746744
• 负责人: Timothy Kernan
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Ironic Chemicals LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1746744&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Engineering; Alternative; Oxidation

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project will be to develop engineered bacteria with the ability to oxidize the copper mineral chalcopyrite and gold. The majority of copper reserves are in chalcopyrite, which currently requires smelting. The US copper mining industry, due to regulatory restrictions, has a limited smelting capacity forcing US copper manufacturers to ship copper mineral concentrates overseas for smelting, which incurs additional transportation and processing costs while losing up to 30% of the full value of the metal to the smelters. At over 400,000 tons of copper concentrate exported annually, this amounts to over $600M in lost value. In gold mining, biooxidation is increasingly used before other gold recovery techniques are utilized, and increased oxidation rates would expand the use and significantly lower the capital and operating costs of this practice. In addition, enhanced oxidation would accelerate the development of mining waste streams as biotechnology feedstocks. This project potentially furthers more economical and sustainable biohydrometallurgical techniques throughout the mining industry.This STTR Phase I project proposes the demonstration and development of new oxidation activity within bioleaching microbes, expanding the applications of biohydrometallurgy in metal mining. This would permit the application of cheaper, low impact biohydrometallurgical methods for important metal minerals. Currently, biohydrometallurgy is limited by its reliance on ferric iron as the main oxidant. The Intellectual Merit of this proposal stems from the use of hydrogen peroxide, which can enable mineral oxidation conversions and rates that are not obtainable with ferric iron alone. Adding hydrogen peroxide to biohydrometallurgy operations is not feasible or cost effective, however, the genetic engineering of biomining microbes, such as A. ferrooxidans, to produce hydrogen peroxide would be a potentially game changing advance. This innovation will result in the production of biomining microbial cells with an unprecedented ability to dissolve sulfide-rich ores leading to the expansion of biohydrometallurgical approaches in the mining industry.

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发工程细菌，能够氧化铜矿物质辣椒和黄金。 大多数铜储备都在沙尔卡泊岩中，目前需要冶炼。 由于监管限制，美国铜矿开采行业的冶炼能力有限，迫使美国铜制造商将铜矿产浓缩物运送到海外以冶炼，这会造成额外的运输和加工成本，同时损失了金属的全部价值的30％。每年超过40万吨的铜浓缩物出口，损失价值超过6亿美元。 在黄金开采中，在利用其他黄金恢复技术之前，越来越多地使用生物氧化，并且氧化速率的提高将扩大使用情况并大大降低这种做法的资本和运营成本。 此外，增强的氧化将加速采矿废物流作为生物技术原料的发展。 该项目有可能进一步促进整个采矿行业的更经济和可持续的生物水解铝技术。该STTR I阶段项目提出了生物素质微生物中新的氧化活性的演示和开发，从而扩大了生物氢化胺在金属采矿中的应用。这将允许对重要的金属矿物质使用便宜，低冲击的生物含量递质方法。目前，生物氢化铝受到对铁铁作为主要氧化剂的依赖的限制。该提案的智力优点源于使用过氧化氢，这可以使单独使用铁铁无法获得的矿物氧化转化和速率。将过氧化氢添加到生物氢化铝的操作中是不可行的或成本效益的，但是，生物计量微生物（例如铁曲霉）的基因工程生产过氧化氢将是一种可能改变游戏的进步。这项创新将导致生产微生物细胞的生产，具有前所未有的能力，可溶解富含硫化物的矿石，从而导致采矿业生物氢化胺方法扩大。