Using yeast to sustainably remediate and extract heavy metals from waste waters

Sun, George L.; Reynolds, Erin. E.; Belcher, Angela M.

doi:10.1038/s41893-020-0478-9

Cited by 98 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Removal of toxic components is another major concern for e-waste processing 3 , 6 , 7 , 31 . The heavy metal removal capability of the FJH process was evaluated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban mining by flash Joule heating

et al. 2021

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Precious metal recovery from electronic waste, termed urban mining, is important for a circular economy. Present methods for urban mining, mainly smelting and leaching, suffer from lengthy purification processes and negative environmental impacts. Here, a solvent-free and sustainable process by flash Joule heating is disclosed to recover precious metals and remove hazardous heavy metals in electronic waste within one second. The sample temperature ramps to ~3400 K in milliseconds by the ultrafast electrical thermal process. Such a high temperature enables the evaporative separation of precious metals from the supporting matrices, with the recovery yields >80% for Rh, Pd, Ag, and >60% for Au. The heavy metals in electronic waste, some of which are highly toxic including Cr, As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, are also removed, leaving a final waste with minimal metal content, acceptable even for agriculture soil levels. Urban mining by flash Joule heating would be 80× to 500× less energy consumptive than using traditional smelting furnaces for metal-component recovery and more environmentally friendly.

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“…Removal of toxic components is another major concern for e-waste processing 3 , 6 , 7 , 31 . The heavy metal removal capability of the FJH process was evaluated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban mining by flash Joule heating

et al. 2021

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“…Iron hooks have a comparable As remediation e ciency (152 mg As m -2 soil year -1 with a total soil As of 50.7 mg kg -1 ) as phytoremediation by P. vittata (29.6-142 mg As m -2 soil year -1 with total soil As 7.60-74.3 mg kg -1 ) 41,42 and rice plants with roots (133 mg As m -2 soil year -1 with total soil As 39.7 mg kg -1 ), although extremely high As remediation e ciency by P. vittata (> 3000 mg As m -2 year -1 ) could be obtained from highly As contaminated soil (As > 100 mg kg -1 ) 8,43 . Additionally, the rich Fe and As in solid deposits produced by Fe hooks could be re-extracted and re-utilized in industries 44 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable removal of soil arsenic by naturally-formed iron oxides on plastic tubes

Yuan

Jin

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Arsenic (As) pollution in paddy fields is a major threat to rice safety. Existing As remediation techniques are costly, require external chemical addition and degrade soil properties. Here, we report the use of plastic tubes as a recyclable tool to precisely extract As from contaminated soils. Following insertion into flooded paddy soils, polyethylene (PE) tube walls were covered by thin but massive Fe coatings of 76.9-367 mg Fe m-2 in 2 weeks, which adsorbed significant amounts of As as well as lead and antimony. The formation of tube-wall Fe oxides was driven by local Fe-oxidizing bacteria with oxygen produced by oxygenic phototrophs (e.g., Cyanobacteria) or diffused from air through the tube wall. The tubes with As-bound Fe oxides can be easily separated from soil and then recycled. We tested the As removal efficiency in a pilot experiment to remove As from ~ 20 cm depth / 80 kg soils in a two-year experiment and achieved an overall efficiency of 152 mg As m-2 soil year-1. The As accumulated in rice tissues was significantly decreased in the treatment. This work provides a low-cost and sustainable soil remediation method for the targeted removal of As from soils and a useful tool for the study and management of the biogeochemical Fe cycle in paddy soils.

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“…They are of particular use in anaerobic digesters for the treatment of sewage, and for the reduction and recovery of metals either in elemental form or in complex with sulfur ( Figure 1B ) [ 86 ]. Sulfate metabolism is one of the main ways in which to precipitate metals but has mainly been limited to bacteria, though recently adaption of the H 2 S production pathway in S. cerevisiae has been shown to be an effective method, together with cell-surface display peptides for the precipitation and recovery of lead, mercury and copper [ 87 ].…”

Section: Bioconversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthetic biology approaches towards the recycling of metals from the environment

Capeness

Horsfall

2020

Biochemical Society Transactions

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Metals are a finite resource and their demand for use within existing and new technologies means metal scarcity is increasingly a global challenge. Conversely, there are areas containing such high levels of metal pollution that they are hazardous to life, and there is loss of material at every stage of the lifecycle of metals and their products. While traditional resource extraction methods are becoming less cost effective, due to a lowering quality of ore, industrial practices have begun turning to newer technologies to tap into metal resources currently locked up in contaminated land or lost in the extraction and manufacturing processes. One such technology uses biology for the remediation of metals, simultaneously extracting resources, decontaminating land, and reducing waste. Using biology for the identification and recovery of metals is considered a much ‘greener’ alternative to that of chemical methods, and this approach is about to undergo a renaissance thanks to synthetic biology. Synthetic biology couples molecular genetics with traditional engineering principles, incorporating a modular and standardised practice into the assembly of genetic parts. This has allowed the use of non-model organisms in place of the normal laboratory strains, as well as the adaption of environmentally sourced genetic material to standardised parts and practices. While synthetic biology is revolutionising the genetic capability of standard model organisms, there has been limited incursion into current practices for the biological recovery of metals from environmental sources. This mini-review will focus on some of the areas that have potential roles to play in these processes.

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Using yeast to sustainably remediate and extract heavy metals from waste waters

Cited by 98 publications

References 44 publications

Urban mining by flash Joule heating

Urban mining by flash Joule heating

Sustainable removal of soil arsenic by naturally-formed iron oxides on plastic tubes

Synthetic biology approaches towards the recycling of metals from the environment

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