Understanding and exploiting biological metal-nanoparticle synthesis for metal recovery

人们越来越关注环境中的铜含量、它们的毒性以及它们对人类和野生动物的不利影响。在英国，地下水中铜的环境质量标准设定得很低，为1-28微克/升，以平衡这些风险与工业利益之间的关系。因此，目前允许的环境铜含量有效地将苏格兰的主要产业——鲑鱼捕捞业——与另一个行业——烈酒行业——对立起来，因为威士忌、伏特加和杜松子酒的生产都涉及到在铜壶蒸馏器中蒸馏的普遍步骤。在蒸馏过程中需要可溶性铜，因为它可以防止含硫化合物与酒精一起蒸馏，否则会产生一种臭鸡蛋的气味，所以简单地改变制造蒸馏器的材料是不可行的。这些溶解的铜会出现在废料中，而不是威士忌中，其浓度高到足以对生物体有毒。因此，在将废物用作动物饲料、肥料或排放到环境中之前，有必要对其进行处理。为了开发一种有效的方法，从威士忌酿造过程中产生的废料中去除有毒物质，威士忌行业投入了大量资金。目前的治疗方法包括化学和物理方法，这些方法既昂贵又有很大的局限性。仍然需要开发廉价而有效的铜污染废物处理方法，利用细菌回收这些污染物可能提供解决方案，使威士忌行业能够继续扩张，而不会对环境造成不利影响。铜离子的生物转化为稳定的铜纳米颗粒可能为蒸馏副产物的处理提供一种具有成本效益的生物解决方案。金属离子的这种生物转化在某些细菌中自然发生，在细菌细胞外形成固体金属纳米颗粒。我们之前的工作已经表明，对于我们所选择的细菌来说，酿酒副产物是一种很好的营养来源，而且酿酒副产物中的铜离子可以同时生物转化为纳米粒子。本申请请求资金，以提高这一过程的效率，使其在未来的工业规模上使用。

There is increasing concern over environmental copper levels, their toxicity and their adverse effects on humans and wildlife. The environmental quality standard of copper in groundwater in the UK is set low, at 1-28 ug/l, to balance these risks against the interests of industry. Consequently, the currently allowed environmental level of copper effectively pitches the key Scottish industry of salmon fishing against another - the spirits industry, as whisky, vodka and gin production involve a universal step of distillation in copper pot stills. Soluble copper is required in the distilling process as it prevents sulphur-containing compounds from distilling with the alcohol, which would give it an aroma of bad eggs, so a simple change to the material from which the stills are made is not an option. This dissolved copper is then found in the waste, and not the whisky, in concentrations high enough to be toxic to living organisms. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the waste before it can be used as animal feed, fertiliser or released into the environment.The whisky industry has invested heavily in research to develop an effective method for removing toxic material from the waste of the whisky making process. Current treatments include chemical and physical methods that are expensive and have significant limitations. Cheap and effective treatment methods for copper contaminated waste still need to be developed and employing bacteria for the recycling of such contaminants may provide the solution, allowing the whisky industry to continue its expansion without adverse environmental consequences.The biological transformation of copper ions to stable copper nanoparticles may provide a cost-effective biological solution for the treatment of distillery coproducts. This biotransformation of metal ions occurs naturally within some bacteria with the formation of solid metal nanoparticles outside of the bacterial cell. Our previous work has shown that distillery coproducts are an excellent nutrient source for our chosen bacterium and that the copper ions in distillery coproducts can be biotransformed to nanoparticles at the same time.This application requests funding to improve the efficiency of this process to allow its future use on a industrial scale.