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

稀土元素（RE）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。超过90%的稀土元素在亚洲和非洲开采。全球对稀土的需求正在导致供应短缺，这正在减缓美国的制造业。这使美国经济变得脆弱。目前的稀土开采过程也对环境产生了重大影响，因为它们产生了大量的有害废物，同时消耗了大量的能源和水。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元素。为了推进这一目标，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元素。该项目将使公众参与解决对采矿和生物技术的关切。该项目的成功完成将通过发展可持续稀土提取的基础知识而造福社会。将通过教育和培训实现对社会的额外好处，包括指导明尼苏达大学的两名博士后研究员和一名研究生，劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的一名博士后研究员，以及格鲁吉亚理工学院的一名研究生，向清洁能源系统和技术过渡导致稀土元素（RE）需求激增，导致严重的供应短缺，已经对美国工业产生了负面影响，特别是电动汽车市场。需要能够利用未充分利用的资源的创新性提取和回收技术，以建立一个不仅仅依赖进口这些关键要素的多元化供应链。今天的稀土提取和加工实践是能源密集型的，并通过废物的产生造成重大的环境影响。该项目旨在创建一个生物基平台，用于弹性生物膜的工程设计，以从各种废物流和受地雷影响的沃茨中提取稀土元素，用于回收，再循环和净化。具体而言，项目团队建议（1）设计稳健的人工生物膜联合体，这些生物膜联合体对环境安全，并且在工业相关操作条件下具有选择性金属结合的可控特性，（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，以及（3）将技术开发与公众参与结合起来，以描述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通过创建一个基于生物膜的系统产生变革性影响，该系统对环境友好，可以可持续地提取/再循环/回收对清洁能源经济至关重要的矿物和金属。其他好处包括开发一个知识库和系统，用于设计生物采矿应用以外的新的活生物膜，如生物修复和生物制造。为了实现本项目的教育和培训目标，主要研究者将利用现有的教育和推广计划和资源（市场科学，核心，大使计划，生物技术K-12和社区学院教育生态系统），以提高STEM意识和参与便携式手-该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.