Understanding and exploiting biological metal-nanoparticle synthesis for metal recovery

人们越来越关注环境中的铜含量，其毒性及其对人类和野生动物的不利影响。联合王国地下水中铜的环境质量标准定得很低，为1-28微克/升，以平衡这些风险和工业利益。因此，目前允许的铜环境水平有效地将苏格兰的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涉及在铜锅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，这会给酒精带来坏鸡蛋的气味，所以简单地改变蒸馏器的材料不是一种选择。这种溶解的铜然后被发现在废物中，而不是威士忌中，浓度高到足以对生物体有毒。因此，在废物被用作动物饲料、肥料或排放到环境中之前，有必要对其进行处理。威士忌行业投入巨资进行研究，以开发一种有效的方法，从威士忌制造过程中的废物中去除有毒物质。目前的治疗方法包括化学和物理方法，这些方法昂贵且具有显著的局限性。廉价和有效的处理方法，铜污染的废物仍然需要开发和雇用细菌的这种污染物的回收利用可能提供的解决方案，使威士忌行业继续其扩张没有不利的环境后果。铜离子的生物转化为稳定的铜纳米粒子可能提供一个具有成本效益的生物解决方案，用于处理酿酒厂副产品。金属离子的这种生物转化在一些细菌内自然发生，在细菌细胞外形成固体金属纳米颗粒。我们之前的工作表明，农药副产品是我们选择的细菌的一个很好的营养源，同时农药副产品中的铜离子可以生物转化为纳米颗粒。该应用程序需要资金来提高这一过程的效率，以便将来在工业规模上使用。

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.