Using naturally occurring and engineered proteins & bacteria, (LLNL) scientists and collaborators will separate and purify rare-earth elements
program, the team was awarded an initial $4 million in funding R&D in Phase 1 with an option for up to an additional $9 million based on program performance in follow-on phases. The team will leverage advances in microbial and biomolecular engineering to develop a scalable bio-based separation and purification strategy for rare-earth elements using under-developed domestic sources. REEs are a set of 17 elements in the periodic table that includes the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium.
“To date, the chemical processes required to extract and purify REEs have been complex and harmful to the environment,” said LLNL scientist Yongqin Jiao, principal investigator for the project. “Extracting or recycling REE from new sources, like low-grade ores and tailings, while using natural products could be game-changing for the REE supply chain.”
In the new project, the LLNL team will leverage the diversity, specificity and customizability of environmental microbiology, synthetic biology and protein engineering to enable new biomining methods for the separation, purification and conversion of REEs into manufacturing-ready forms. In addition to exploiting previously identified microbes and proteins that have been tested and used to purify and separate REEs, the team will conduct a bioprospecting campaign to identify new REE-associated microorganisms that exhibit REE-utilization capacity. Results will expand the repertoire of REE-biomining hosts and REE-binding biomolecules.
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