EFRI ELiS: Engineered Living Biofilms (ELBs) for critical mineral biomining and bioremediation applications

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential components in electrical vehicles, solar panels, low-energy light bulbs, batteries, and smart phones. More than 90% of REEs are mined in Asia and Africa. A global demand for REEs is causing supply shortages that are slowing down manufacturing in the US. This makes the US economy vulnerable. Current REE mining processes also have major impacts on the environment because they create massive amounts of harmful waste while consuming vast amounts of energy and water. The goal of this project is to develop an environmentally friendly biomining technology to extract REEs from US national resources. To advance this goal, the investigators propose to develop a bacterial system that can efficiently extract REEs from mining, industrial, and electronic wastes at an industrial level. The project will engage the public to address concerns about mining and biotechnology. The successful completion of this project will benefit society by developing fundamental knowledge on sustainable REE extraction. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through education and training, including the mentoring of two postdoctoral researchers and one graduate student at the University of Minnesota, one postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and one graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology.Transitioning to clean energy systems and technologies has resulted in a surge in demand for rare earth elements (REEs), causing a significant supply shortage that already negatively impacts US industries, especially the EV market. Innovative extraction and recycling technologies that can access underutilized resources are needed to establish a diversified supply chain that does not solely rely on importing these critical elements. Today’s REE extraction and processing practices are energy intensive and cause significant environmental impacts through waste generation. This project aims to create a bio-based platform for engineering of resilient biofilms to extract REEs from various waste streams and mine-impacted waters for recovery, recycling, and decontamination. Specifically, the project team proposes to (1) engineer robust, artificial biofilm consortia that are environmentally safe and have controllable properties for selective metal binding under industrially relevant operational conditions, (2) design and model a bioreactor system to achieve economic feasibility and future deployment, and (3) pair technology development with public engagement to characterize values held by different stakeholders to inform acceptance of new biotechnologies in mining impacted regions. The successful completion of this project has the potential to have transformative impact through the creation of a biofilm-based system that is environmentally friendly and can sustainably extract/recycle/recover minerals and metals critical for clean-energy economy. Additional benefits include the development of a knowledge base and systems for the design of new living biofilms beyond biomining applications, such as bioremediation and biomanufacturing. To implement this project’s educational and training goals, the Principal Investigators will leverage existing education and outreach programs and resources (Market Science, CORE, Ambassador program, Biotechnology K-12 and Community College Education Ecosystem) to increase STEM awareness and participation with portable hands-on demonstration modules based on biomining.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.