Microbial Resource Recovery
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential to modern technologies, including renewable-energy systems, electric vehicles, high-performance magnets, electronics, and national-defense applications. Yet their supply chains remain vulnerable because production is geographically concentrated and conventional extraction often requires intensive mining, high energy inputs, and substantial chemical consumption. As demand for critical minerals grows, recovering REEs from secondary resources—such as mine tailings, electronic waste, and industrial byproducts—offers an important opportunity to strengthen resource security while advancing a circular economy.
Our research explores biologically inspired approaches to make REE recovery more selective, sustainable, and adaptable. Unlike conventional separation processes, which can struggle to distinguish chemically similar elements and generate large volumes of waste, biological molecules can recognize metals through highly specific coordination interactions. Naturally occurring REE-binding proteins and peptides demonstrate that biological systems can achieve exceptional affinity and selectivity under mild conditions. However, nature provides only a limited set of such molecules, and their performance may not always meet the demands of complex real-world waste streams.
Recent advances in synthetic biology create new opportunities to improve the capacity, selectivity, and robustness of REE recovery from waste. Engineered biosorbents could provide a low-energy route for capturing valuable elements from dilute or chemically complex waste sources.
The broader vision is to connect precision biomolecular recognition with practical environmental engineering. This includes understanding how biological materials interact with competing metals, variable water chemistry, and diverse waste matrices, while considering the energy, cost, environmental footprint, and social acceptance of future recovery systems. By integrating resource recovery, biotechnology, and sustainability assessment, this research aims to establish a foundation for greener critical-mineral recycling and more resilient materials supply chains.
