Removal of Rare Earth Elements and Precious Metal Species by Biosorption

Abstract

In Rare Earth Elements (REE) or Precious Metal Species (PMS) removal many types of biological phenomena can take place, such as biosorption, bioaccumulation, resistance/detoxification mechanisms, and direct or indirect utilization in the microbial metabolism. The high demand for the REE or PMS implies demand on increased production of ores containing REE or PMS (i.e. mining) and recycling of solutions to recover the elements contained in waste. But the use of REE and PMS in many anthropogenic applications and devices has led to an increased of public and environment exposure. The aim of this chapter is to compare under different operating conditions, the biosorption capacities of various microbial species and natural by-products for rare earth elements, to investigate the involved sorption mechanisms and to evaluate the potential industrial use of this process to metal ion removal.

Biosorption and desorption of lanthanum(III) and neodymium(III) in fixed‐bed columns with Sargassum sp.: Perspectives for separation of rare earth metals

“…A great diversity of biosorbents have been investigated for metal biosorption including fungal biomass,11–14 bacteria,6, 11, 12, 14, 15 algae,7, 12–14, 16–26 biopolymers,5, 9, 12, 14, 27 agroindustrial and domestic subproducts,12, 14, 28, 29 etc. Among algae, Sargassum sp.…”

“…The rare earth (RE) metals constitute a group of 17 elements including scandium, yttrium and 15 lanthanides. The RE are primordial for the development of several disciplines: coordination chemistry, organometallic compounds, luminescent compounds, catalysis, solid‐state chemistry, analytical and environmental chemistry, industrial applications, biology, and medicine 11, 12, 32, 33. Though RE are very abundant elements at the earth surface, their market value is quite high.…”

Microalgae-based wastewater treatment: Mechanisms, challenges, recent advances, and future prospects

“…Kotrba et al. [ 89 ] stated that metal cations of low atomic number compete with target actions for active sites on the surface of cells, thus reducing HMs removal efficiency. The temperature was shown to influence HM absorption in several studies, which might be favorable [ 90 ] or negative [ 91 ] for the application in WWT.…”

Biological oxidation of Mn(II) coupled with nitrification for removal and recovery of minor metals by downflow hanging sponge reactor

“…Heavy metals have negative effects on aquatic systems, even when present at low concentrations; accordingly, the removal and recovery of minor metals from wastewater streams is necessary. Recently, biosorption technology for the removal and recovery of metals has received a great deal of attention (Andr es et al, 2011). Biomineralization has also been investigated as a promising method.…”