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.

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发具有氧化铜矿石和黄金能力的工程细菌。 大部分铜储量是黄铜矿，目前需要冶炼。 由于监管限制，美国铜矿业的冶炼能力有限，迫使美国铜制造商将铜精矿运往海外进行冶炼，这带来了额外的运输和加工成本，同时损失了高达30%的金属全部价值。每年出口的铜精矿超过40万吨，价值损失超过6亿美元。 在金矿开采中，在使用其他黄金回收技术之前，越来越多地使用生物氧化，提高氧化率将扩大使用范围，并大大降低这种做法的资本和运营成本。 此外，加强氧化作用将加速开发采矿废物流作为生物技术原料。 该项目有望在整个采矿业推广更经济和可持续的生物湿法冶金技术。该STTR第一阶段项目提出了在生物浸出微生物中展示和开发新的氧化活性，扩大生物湿法冶金在金属采矿中的应用。这将允许对重要的金属矿物应用更便宜、低影响的生物湿法冶金方法。目前，生物湿法冶金由于依赖三价铁作为主要氧化剂而受到限制。这一建议的智力价值源于使用过氧化氢，它可以使矿物氧化转化率和速度，这是无法获得单独的三价铁。在生物湿法冶金过程中添加过氧化氢既不可行，也不经济，但生物采矿微生物的基因工程，如A。将氧化亚铁氧化物转化为过氧化氢将是一个潜在的改变游戏规则的进步。这一创新将导致生物采矿微生物细胞的生产，其具有前所未有的溶解富含硫化物的矿石的能力，从而扩大采矿业中的生物湿法冶金方法。