I-Corps: Biological Extraction and Purification of Rare Earth Elements

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是潜在的开发一种环境友好的、基于生物的技术来提取和提纯稀土元素(REE)。稀土元素是元素周期表中的元素，由镧系元素以及钪和Y组成。它们是计算机和催化剂等重要现代技术以及风车和电动汽车等许多清洁能源技术的重要组成部分。目前，美国对这些关键矿物的开采和提纯有限。这项拟议的技术使用工程菌从美国随处可得的回收和废物中清洁地提取和提纯稀土元素。稀土原料的选择包括回收电子产品、火山灰和各种催化剂以及其他材料。这个i-Corps项目是基于能够提取和提纯稀土元素(REE)的工程菌的潜在开发。这项拟议的技术使用氧化葡萄糖杆菌来生产一种酸性生物脱脂剂，能够将稀土从含有稀土的材料中浸出到溶液中。此外，各种不同菌株的希瓦氏杆菌都经过改造，在其膜上有特定于特定稀土元素的结合部位，这允许从混合物中吸附单独的稀土元素。然后，单独的稀土元素从细菌膜上解吸出来，形成纯溶液，并以氧化物或羧酸盐的形式从溶液中沉淀出来。实验室规模的结果表明，工程菌可以产生一种生物萃取剂，以相当高的效率将稀土从原料中浸出到溶液中，并且可以通过改变细菌膜上对稀土的相对亲和力来提高纯化效果。这项拟议的技术可用于从废物中提取和提纯稀土元素，例如从火山灰和其他原料中，提供稳定的稀土供应。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the potential development of an environmentally friendly, biology-based technology to extract and purify rare earth elements (REE). REE are elements from the periodic table consisting of the lanthanides elements as well as scandium and yttrium. They are essential ingredients in important modern technologies such as computers and catalysts, as well as many clean energy technologies such as windmills and electric cars. Currently, there is limited mining and purification of these critical minerals undertaken in the US. The proposed technology uses engineered bacteria to cleanly extract and purify REE from recycled and waste materials that are readily available in the US. Options for REE feedstocks include recycled electronics, coal ash, and various catalysts among other materials. This I-Corps project is based on the potential development of engineered bacteria capable of extracting and purifying rare earth elements (REE). The proposed technology uses the bacterium Gluoconobacter oxydans to produce an acidic biolixiviant capable of leaching REE into a solution from an REE-containing material. In addition, various strains of the bacteria Shewanella oneidensis are engineered to have binding sites on their membranes specific for a particular REE, which allows individual REEs to be adsorbed from a mixture. Individual REEs are then desorbed from the bacterial membranes to create a pure solution and precipitated from the solution as an oxide or carboxylate. Results at lab scale have shown that the engineered bacteria may produce a biolixiviant that will leach REE out of a feedstock into solution with a reasonably high efficiency and the relative affinity on the bacterial membrane for REE may be modified to enhance purification. The proposed technology may be used to extract and purify REE from waste such as coal ash as well as other feedstocks, providing a steady supply of REE.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.