EFRI ELiS: Engineered Living Biofilms (ELBs) for critical mineral biomining and bioremediation applications

稀土元素是电动汽车、太阳能电池板、低能耗灯泡、电池和智能手机的重要组成部分。90%以上的稀土都是在亚洲和非洲开采的。全球对稀土元素的需求正在导致供应短缺，从而放缓了美国的制造业。这使得美国经济变得脆弱。目前的稀土开采过程也对环境产生了重大影响，因为它们在消耗大量能源和水的同时产生了大量有害废物。该项目的目标是开发一种环境友好的生物采矿技术，从美国国家资源中提取稀土。为了实现这一目标，研究人员建议开发一种细菌系统，可以在工业水平上有效地从采矿、工业和电子废物中提取稀土。该项目将使公众参与解决有关采矿和生物技术的问题。该项目的成功完成将通过发展可持续稀土元素提取的基础知识来造福社会。对社会的额外好处将通过教育和培训来实现，包括指导明尼苏达大学的两名博士后研究人员和一名研究生，劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的一名博士后研究人员，以及佐治亚理工学院的一名研究生。向清洁能源系统和技术的过渡导致对稀土元素（ree）的需求激增，造成了严重的供应短缺，已经对美国工业，特别是电动汽车市场产生了负面影响。需要创新的提取和回收技术来获取未充分利用的资源，以建立多样化的供应链，而不仅仅依赖于进口这些关键要素。今天的稀土元素提取和加工实践是能源密集型的，并通过产生废物对环境造成重大影响。该项目旨在为弹性生物膜工程创建一个基于生物的平台，从各种废物流和受矿山影响的水中提取稀土元素，用于回收、循环和净化。具体而言，项目团队建议：(1)在工业相关操作条件下，设计健壮的人工生物膜联盟，该联盟对环境安全，具有可控制的选择性金属结合性能；(2)设计和建模生物反应器系统，以实现经济可行性和未来部署。(3)将技术发展与公众参与相结合，以表征不同利益相关者所持有的价值观，从而为受采矿影响地区接受新生物技术提供信息。该项目的成功完成有可能产生变革性的影响，通过创建一个基于生物膜的系统，该系统是环境友好型的，可以可持续地提取/循环/回收对清洁能源经济至关重要的矿物和金属。额外的好处包括除了生物修复和生物制造应用之外，为设计新的活生物膜开发知识库和系统。为了实现该项目的教育和培训目标，首席研究员将利用现有的教育和外展计划和资源（市场科学、核心、大使计划、生物技术K-12和社区大学教育生态系统），通过基于生物挖掘的便携式动手演示模块，提高STEM意识和参与度。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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential components in electrical vehicles, solar panels, low-energy light bulbs, batteries, and smart phones. More than 90% of REEs are mined in Asia and Africa. A global demand for REEs is causing supply shortages that are slowing down manufacturing in the US. This makes the US economy vulnerable. Current REE mining processes also have major impacts on the environment because they create massive amounts of harmful waste while consuming vast amounts of energy and water. The goal of this project is to develop an environmentally friendly biomining technology to extract REEs from US national resources. To advance this goal, the investigators propose to develop a bacterial system that can efficiently extract REEs from mining, industrial, and electronic wastes at an industrial level. The project will engage the public to address concerns about mining and biotechnology. The successful completion of this project will benefit society by developing fundamental knowledge on sustainable REE extraction. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through education and training, including the mentoring of two postdoctoral researchers and one graduate student at the University of Minnesota, one postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and one graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology.Transitioning to clean energy systems and technologies has resulted in a surge in demand for rare earth elements (REEs), causing a significant supply shortage that already negatively impacts US industries, especially the EV market. Innovative extraction and recycling technologies that can access underutilized resources are needed to establish a diversified supply chain that does not solely rely on importing these critical elements. Today’s REE extraction and processing practices are energy intensive and cause significant environmental impacts through waste generation. This project aims to create a bio-based platform for engineering of resilient biofilms to extract REEs from various waste streams and mine-impacted waters for recovery, recycling, and decontamination. Specifically, the project team proposes to (1) engineer robust, artificial biofilm consortia that are environmentally safe and have controllable properties for selective metal binding under industrially relevant operational conditions, (2) design and model a bioreactor system to achieve economic feasibility and future deployment, and (3) pair technology development with public engagement to characterize values held by different stakeholders to inform acceptance of new biotechnologies in mining impacted regions. The successful completion of this project has the potential to have transformative impact through the creation of a biofilm-based system that is environmentally friendly and can sustainably extract/recycle/recover minerals and metals critical for clean-energy economy. Additional benefits include the development of a knowledge base and systems for the design of new living biofilms beyond biomining applications, such as bioremediation and biomanufacturing. To implement this project’s educational and training goals, the Principal Investigators will leverage existing education and outreach programs and resources (Market Science, CORE, Ambassador program, Biotechnology K-12 and Community College Education Ecosystem) to increase STEM awareness and participation with portable hands-on demonstration modules based on biomining.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.