I-Corps: Biological solutions for recovery of rare earth elements

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发细菌生物过程来产生稀土元素。 稀土元素是消费电子和电动汽车等技术中使用的关键金属，对这些金属的需求每年持续增长8- 10%。 全球每年产生超过5000万吨的电子废物。从电子废物中回收稀土元素将通过减少废物足迹、地下水和土壤污染以及电子产品成本来影响全球数十亿人。 与目前的湿法冶金工艺相比，拟议的技术有可能将稀土氧化物生产的碳足迹减少25-70%，防止估计为148亿美元的环境损害。此外，开发国内稀土再利用和再循环技术可能提供一条独立于外国进口的道路，并提供一个独特的机会，以产生稀土补救和再循环管道，从低级废物流中去除重金属污染物（医疗废物、废水、飞灰），并向电子制造商重新供应稀土元素。这个I-Corps项目是基于一个微生物平台的发展，一步生物沥滤，从废物源中分离和生物积累稀土元素。 它与纯化工艺相结合，提供低成本，可持续的制造级稀土氧化物（REO）。 所提出的工艺使用产生稀土结合配体的微生物，所述稀土结合配体对稀土具有高度特异性，从而消除了对苛刻的酸、高温和压力以及在典型的湿法冶金和火法冶金生产方案中涉及的溶剂萃取步骤的需要。 这种细菌过程是建立在发现特定的细菌能够选择性地溶解，运输和生物积累复杂来源的稀土。 利用遗传和代谢工程，已经开发出一种细菌平台，其表现出增强的生物浸出和生物富集具有高度特异性的稀土。拟议的技术目前有能力从电子废物中回收g/L级的稀土元素。 如果成功的话，这将被用于使用废弃原料生产REO，从而减少生产过程中的环境负担。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进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a bacterial bioprocess to generate rare earth elements (REEs). Rare earth elements are critical metals used in technologies such as consumer electronics and electric vehicles, and demand for these metals continues to increase annually by 8-10%. More than 50 million tons of electronic waste (E-waste) are generated globally each year. Recycling REEs from E-waste would impact billions of people worldwide by reducing the waste footprint, groundwater and soil contamination, and electronics costs. The proposed technology has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of rare earth oxide production by 25–70% compared to current hydrometallurgical processes, preventing environmental damage estimated at $14.8 billion. In addition, developing technologies for domestic REE reuse and recycling may provide a path towards independence from foreign importation and offers a unique opportunity to generate an REE remediation and recycling pipeline, removing heavy metal contaminants from low-grade waste streams (medical waste, wastewater, fly ash) and resupplying the REEs to electronics manufacturers.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a microbial platform for one-step bioleaching, separation, and bioaccumulation of rare earth elements (REEs) from waste sources. It is combined with a purification process to provide low-cost, sustainable, manufacturing-grade rare earth oxides (REOs). The proposed process uses microbes that produce rare earth binding ligands that are highly specific for REEs, removing the need for harsh acids, high temperatures and pressures, and solvent extraction steps involved in canonical hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical production schemes. This bacterial process is built on the discovery that specific bacteria are able to selectively solubilize, transport, and bioaccumulate REEs from complex sources. Using genetic and metabolic engineering, a bacterial platform has been developed that exhibits enhanced bioleaching and bioaccumulation of REEs with high specificity. The proposed technology currently has the capacity to recover REEs at the g/L scale from electronic waste. If successful, this could be used to produce REOs using waste feedstocks, reducing the environmental burden of production.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.