At CMI Team member Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CMI researchers have utilized the exceptional selectivity of a biological ligand, lanmodulin (LanM) proteins to significantly reduce the number of separation steps, while working with feedstocks as dilute as one or two percent rare earth elements (REEs).
“We are taking advantage of the selectivity of biology to try to do things in a more streamlined, less energetically and chemically demanding, and less capital-intensive process,” says Dan Park, Livermore staff scientist and group leader for Systems and Synthetic Biology (SSB).
Ziye Dong, SSB staff scientist, has pioneered column-based separation to leverage LanM's REE adsorption behavior. In this process, columns contain a resin of LanM immobilized onto polymer microbeads. Low-grade REE feedstock leachate flows through the columns, the REEs present in the feedstock bind to the resin on the way down, and non-REE metal ions flow through to the bottom without interacting with LanM.
To be economically feasible, the resin must be reusable for thousands of cycles. LanM resin has exhibited high stability for reuse, and its production is inexpensive and readily scalable. Dong’s current column work supports up to 100 milliliters of resin and is poised to be scaled up significantly.
See the full story: Advancing Rare-Earth Biomining for a Secure Supply