Recovery of critical metals using biometallurgy.
The increased development of green low-carbon energy technologies that require platinum group metals (PGMs) and rare earth elements (REEs), together with the geopolitical challenges to sourcing these metals, has spawned major governmental and industrial efforts to rectify current supply insecurities. As a result of the increasing critical importance of PGMs and REEs, environmentally sustainable approaches to recover these metals from primary ores and secondary streams are needed. In this review, we define the sources and waste streams from which PGMs and REEs can potentially be sustainably recovered using microorganisms, and discuss the metal-microbe interactions most likely to form the basis of different environmentally friendly recovery processes. Finally, we highlight the research needed to address challenges to applying the necessary microbiology for metal recovery given the physical and chemical complexities of specific streams.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
Wei-Qin
WQ
Zhuang
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States.
Jeffrey P
JP
Fitts
Material Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States; Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
Caroline M
CM
Ajo-Franklin
Laboratory for Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET), Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
Synthia
S
Maes
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States.
Lisa
L
Alvarez-Cohen
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States. Electronic address: Tom.Hennebel@eu.umicore.com.
Tom
T
Hennebel
D017753:Ecosystem; D008670:Metals / Q000378:metabolism*; D062611:Solid Waste; D062065:Wastewater / Q000382:microbiology
D008670:Metals; D062611:Solid Waste; D062065:Wastewater