Loading...

Rare earth elements (REEs), including scandium, yttrium, and fifteen lanthanides. They have unique physical and chemical properties and are important non-renewable resources. Although rare earth elements are distributed in the earth's crust, the concentration is too low to form a single mineral. REEs often exist in the form of complex minerals, and the mining and processing are still faced with many technical and environmental challenges, which have negative effects on the supply chain of rare earth elements. Traditional rare earth smelting and separation and extraction processes include pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, etc., but there are problems such as large energy consumption, complicated processes, and serious environmental pollution. Therefore, biological mining, a milder, more environmentally friendly, and efficient extraction process, has gradually entered the field of vision, which better suits China's green development concept through the bioleaching, biosorption, bioaccumulation, and other functions of rare earth metals leaching and extraction.

We are committed to developing a milder and more environmentally friendly sustainable biomining process for lanthanide rare earth elements by integrating bioleaching, biosorption, and biosafety modules to attain lanthanide rare earth elements.

We used Issatchenkia orientalis, which has a high tolerance to low pH, as a chassis strain to overproduce succinate as the medium for bioleaching.

We further enhanced the rare earth binding and rare earth detection performance of TFD-EE by introducing a de novo lanthanide binding protein TFD-EE and performing site-directed mutagenesis based on rational design.

We used the yeast surface display system based on a-lectin to display the lanthanide binding protein, TFD-EE, on the cell surface and finally constructed a whole-cell bio-adsorbent.

To realize the continuous and large-scale adsorption of REEs by the whole-cell bio-adsorbent in the water treatment environment such as ore bioleaching fluid and mine wastewater, we designed a hardware carrier in series with a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and a membrane aeration biofilm reactor (MABR). In addition, FLO11 gene was overexpressed in S. cerevisiae to endow yeast with surface adhesion properties, which allowed yeast cells to adhere to the plastic suspension fillers of MBBR and hollow fiber membrane carriers of MABR to form yeast biofilms for better application in rare earth biosorption.

In this study, we used the copper ion inhibited promoter pCTR3 and the toxin-antitoxin system RelE/RelB to regulate yeast cell death for biosafety. When our engineered yeast are leaked to the outside, the yeast will respond to the low concentration of copper ions in the environment and express the toxin RelE, initiating the suicide mechanism.

1. The biological leaching efficiency, growth efficiency, lanthanide binding protein adsorption efficiency, and protein surface display efficiency of yeast may be affected by specific environmental conditions.

2. At present, the chassis strains used in our five modules are not the same, but when applied to specific industrial applications, all the relevant genes should be integrated into the same chassis strain. At that time, there may be difficulties in gene circuit modification, and various other effects may also have unknown effects on the rare earth biosorption of yeast.

3. In our experiments, our yeast surface display system utilizes a galactose-induced expression mechanism driven by the GAL promoter expressed on free plasmids. However, for industrial applications, the exogenous gene should be integrated into yeast genomic and constitutively expressed.

We use the SWOT business analysis model to analyze the internal and external comprehensive conditions of our CaptuREE bio-mining platform from four perspectives: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Innovative Technology: The CaptuREE platform employs the de novo lanthanide binding protein TFD-EE, an innovative biotechnology that allows efficient adsorption of rare earth elements.

Environmentally Friendly: Compared with traditional physical and chemical mining methods,

Cost-effectiveness: Biomining may have lower operating costs because it reduces energy consumption and the need for chemical treatment.

Sustainability: The platform supports sustainable mining of rare earth elements, suiting the global demand for sustainable resource management.

High-affinity Material: TFD-EE proteins show a higher affinity than naturally occurring lanthanide binding proteins.

Technology Maturity: As a new technology, it may require optimization to achieve commercialization.

Scaling Challenges: Scaling up from the laboratory scale to industrial scale may face technical and economic challenges.

Market Acceptance: Markets may be conservative about new technologies and it takes time to build trust and acceptance.

Dependence on Specific Microorganisms: Platforms are dependent on the biological properties of specific microorganisms and may be affected by environmental changes.

Regulatory and Legal Issues: Biotechnology may face a complex regulatory environment with regulatory requirements to be met in different regions.

Global Demand growth: With the development of technology, the demand for rare earth elements is growing, especially in the high-tech and defense sectors.

Environmental Trends: The increasing focus on environmental protection and sustainability globally provides a market opportunity for bio-mining technologies.

Policy Support: Governments may provide financial support and tax incentives to encourage the adoption of more environmentally friendly mining technologies.

Technology Collaboration: Collaboration with academic institutions and industry partners can accelerate technology development and market penetration.

International Market: The global demand for rare earth elements provides a broad market space for the CaptuREE platform.

Technology Competition: Other companies and research institutions may develop competing technologies that affect the market position of the CaptuREE platform.

Unstable Availability of Raw Materials: The availability of microorganisms or culture media can be affected by price fluctuations and supply chain issues.

Environmental Changes: Climate change and extreme weather may affect microbial growth and performance.

Regulatory Changes: Changes in biotechnology and environmental regulations may adversely affect the operation of the CaptuREE platform.

Intellectual Property Risks: Protecting technology and patents can be challenging and requires effective IP strategies to address them.

Optimizing the biological mining process, gradually scaling up from laboratory to pilot scale, and finally realizing industrial production; Continuing to improve the Issatchenkia orientalis strain to improve the yield of succinic acid and other organic acids and enhance the leaching efficiency of rare earth elements; Carrying out further engineering modification of the TFD-EE protein to improve its adsorption capacity and selectivity for rare earth elements

Design and build production facilities that can accommodate large-scale microbial fermentation and protein expression; Develop and deploy large-scale MBBR and MABR systems to achieve efficient adsorption and recovery of rare earth elements.

Ensure a stable supply of raw materials, including ores, medium components, and any necessary ancillary chemicals; Establish the recovery and purification process of rare earth elements to meet the demand for rare earth element purity in different industries.

Research target markets and identify potential customers and partners, such as high-tech electronics, green energy, and defense industries; Establish brand image, emphasize product environmental advantages and sustainability; Formulate reasonable pricing strategy according to production cost, market demand, and competition situation.