Project BEAR aims for sustainable alternative to metal mining

In a first collaboration between the two institutions, researchers from Nottingham University’s Faculty of Engineering and Technical University of Denmark (DTU) will use the six-figure funding for Project BEAR to identify a new efficient, low-cost, environmentally friendly solution to recover these precious, finite metals that are present in numerous products.

The current CO2 emissions and environmental impact of mining those metals are untenable, and the supply chain of these metals is also dependent on geopolitical conditions.

In a statement, Dr Helena Gomes, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at Nottingham University, said: “Our ultimate goal is to create a circular economy by using metal-tolerant bacteria isolated from different environments and exploit their capability to dissolve metals in a reactor with a low-level electric current. To do this, we’re going to combine two different technologies – bioleaching and electrodialysis.

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“Bioleaching uses acid-producing bacteria to solubilise metals from various wastes, but it can be a slow process, which is where electrodialysis comes in. It uses low-level electric currents to transport and separate the metals much more quickly. By speeding up this method, we’re creating a more efficient, sustainable process that can be scaled up for use in different types of waste. In this project, we are also looking at valorising the residues after metal recovery as construction materials, for closing the loop.”

Ana Lima, Senior Researcher at Technical University of Denmark, said: “The BEAR project is timely and more urgent than ever. The EU is pushing the green agenda and investing more and more in renewable energy – which is highly dependent on scarce and rare earth metals. We need to find circular and low-carbon-intensive ways to extract these metals from secondary waste materials. The collaboration between Nottingham University and DTU is pivotal to achieve this.”

With £165,517 in funding, Project BEAR (Bioleaching and Electrodialytic Applications for metal Recovery from wastes) is due to start in January 2024 and will run until December 2025.