Mitigating the negative impacts of e-waste from the mine to the municipality using the power of microbes

利用微生物的力量减轻电子废物从矿山到市政当局的负面影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04891
• 负责人: Grégoire, Daniel
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=747883
• 关键词: Mitigating; negative; impacts; waste; mine

The long-term vision for my research program is to expand the known biodiversity of microbes living in contaminated habitats and identify novel physiological pathways that can be used for sustainable waste reclamation. My initial research will concentrate on microbe-mediated metal cycling in e-waste. As the demand for consumer electronics has increased in the last decade, so has the environmental footprint associated with their manufacturing and disposal. In 2019 alone, it is estimated that 53.6 million tons of e-waste were produced at the global scale. The inability to properly manage e-waste has created a scenario in which managing e-waste is challenging because it represents a contamination source but also contains valuable metals that could be recycled, mitigating the burden of large-scale mining operations. The global growth of e-waste has created a new and important environment for microbes that can directly interact with toxic and valuable metals. To date, microbial influence on the fate of metals in e-waste is poorly understood. Moreover, how e-waste's unique metal chemistry has shaped microbial metabolic pathways that could be used for waste reclamation remains unexplored. My program is underpinned by 3 short-term objectives: A) to provide the first metabolic models for microbial metal cycling in habitats contaminated with e-waste; B) to identify novel physiological pathways for metal cycling; and C) to validate sustainable biological metal reclamation strategies for e-waste. Objective A will use exploratory meta-omics surveys (i.e., whole community DNA and protein analyses) coupled to geochemical analyses to provide comprehensive biogeochemical models for metal cycling in habitats contaminated with e-waste. Objective B will test the hypothesis that unique mixtures of metals occurring in their elemental states in e-waste have selected for novel redox cycling enzymes involved in metal metabolism and detoxification. Objective C will focus on optimizing biological waste reclamation strategies for e-waste using stable microbial consortia. This research program will mitigate the negative impacts of consumer electronics from the mine where metals are extracted, to the municipalities where they are disposed of. This research will provide fundamental insights into how microbes are adapting to Earth's fastest growing waste stream by identifying novel metal cycling pathways. These discoveries will be translated into innovative biological waste reclamation strategies that can be used for urban mining to decrease our reliance on conventional ore mining. This research will demonstrate the benefits of biological waste reclamation strategies to industry and incentivize the adoption of more sustainable recycling practices in the future. I anticipate that this program will reshape our view of metal biogeochemistry in contaminated habitats and position Canada as a world-leader in developing sustainable biotechnology to support a circular economy.

我的研究计划的长期愿景是扩大生活在受污染栖息地的微生物的已知生物多样性，并确定可用于可持续废物回收的新的生理途径。我的初步研究将集中在微生物介导的电子垃圾中的金属循环。随着过去十年对消费电子产品的需求增加，与其制造和处置相关的环境足迹也在增加。据估计，仅2019年，全球范围内就产生了5360万吨电子垃圾。无法妥善管理电子废物造成了这样一种情况，即管理电子废物具有挑战性，因为它既是污染源，又含有可以回收利用的贵重金属，从而减轻了大规模采矿作业的负担。全球电子垃圾的增长为微生物创造了一个新的重要环境，可以直接与有毒和有价值的金属相互作用。迄今为止，人们对微生物对电子垃圾中金属命运的影响知之甚少。此外，电子垃圾独特的金属化学如何塑造可用于废物回收的微生物代谢途径仍有待探索。我的计划以3个短期目标为基础：A)为被电子废物污染的生境中的微生物金属循环提供第一个代谢模型；B)确定金属循环的新生理途径；以及C)验证电子废物的可持续生物金属回收战略。目标A将使用探索性的荟萃组学调查(即整个群落的DNA和蛋白质分析)，并结合地球化学分析，为受电子垃圾污染的生境中的金属循环提供全面的生物地球化学模型。目的B将验证这样一种假设，即电子垃圾中以元素状态出现的独特的金属混合物已被选为参与金属代谢和解毒的新型氧化还原循环酶。目标C将侧重于利用稳定的微生物联合体优化电子废物的生物废物回收策略。这项研究计划将减轻消费电子产品从金属提取矿到它们被处置的市政当局的负面影响。这项研究将通过识别新的金属循环路径，为微生物如何适应地球上增长最快的废物流提供基本的见解。这些发现将转化为创新的生物废物回收战略，可用于城市采矿，以减少我们对传统矿石开采的依赖。这项研究将展示生物废物回收战略对工业的好处，并鼓励未来采用更可持续的回收做法。我预计，这一计划将重塑我们对受污染生境中金属生物地球化学的看法，并使加拿大在发展可持续生物技术以支持循环经济方面处于世界领先地位。