Optimisation of the bioleaching of REE from FP with chemoorgano-heterotrophic microorganisms.

Rare earth elements (REE) are used in mostly all new technologies and until now, there is nearly no recycling of REE containing end-of-life products [1]. Furthermore, only poor information is available regarding interactions of microorganisms with REE and there are almost no studies describing the bioleaching of REE. However, it can be assumed that microorganisms play an important role in the biogeochemistry of REE. This study investigates the potential of organic acid and metal binding molecules producing microbes to extract REE from technical waste.
During recycling of energy-saving bulbs fluorescent phosphor (FP) is collected as a distinct fraction. It contains about 10% REE-oxides bound in the hardly water-soluble triband dyes as oxides, phosphates, aluminates and silicates [2]. Previous experiments showed, that the chemoorgano-heterotrophic, organic acid producing micrrooganisms Yarrowia lipolytica, Komatogateiibacter xylinus and Lactobacillus casei as well as the mixed culture Kombucha are in principle suitable for the bioleaching of REE from FP. In this presentation the solubilisation process is investigated regarding the leaching metabolites and optimised with respect to maximal REE release. Thereto, the results are transferred from shake flasks to bioreactor and the media were adjusted. Furthermore, the influence of metal binding molecules like siderophores was tested.
It could be shown, that bioleaching is a potential alternative to technical leaching approaches, even though, the leaching efficiency is still low. This provides the basis for the development of an eco-friendly alternative to the currently applied methods.

[1] European Commission (2014) On the review of the list of critical raw materials for the EU and the implementation of the Raw Materials Initiative, Brüssel. [2] Haucke et al. (2011) Verfahren zur Rückgewinnung seltener Erden aus Leuchtstofflampen, Osram AG.