There is an ever-increasing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) in renewable energy, consumer products, and defence and national security applications. Due to the uncertainty in the global REE supply chain, there is an urgent need for the development of new technologies that enable cost-effective recovery of REEs from low-grade feedstocks. Low-grade REE sources in the U.S., such as mine tailings, geothermal brines, and coal byproducts, are abundant and offer an attractive alternative resource. To address this need, we developed an innovative biotechnology that relies on bacterial native cell surface functional groups and incorporates enhanced bioengineered features to sequester and recovery REEs from low-grade sources [1, 2]. A column setup with immobilized microbes enables a scalable flow-through operation. Technology features and REE recovery performance from leachates of a few representative low-grade feedstocks will be described. Preliminary predictions on the economic viability [3] of integrating a biosorption approach into an industrial-scale REE recovery process will be discussed.

Development of a biosorption process for recovery of rare earth metals

2019 Spring National Meeting

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