Edinburgh, Scotland — What do sneezes and sulfuric acid have in common? Both can extract valuable minerals. Well…kind of. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland have discovered that certain types of bacteria can be used to help recycle and repurpose vital minerals for electric vehicles.
Specifically, Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at the university originally told the Guardian that some bacteria, as part of a detoxification process, can capture metal atoms and turn them into nanoparticles. From here, the team was able to have the bacteria successfully latch onto specific high-value metals within a dissolved electronic waste mixture and turn them into solid chemicals.
Key minerals that the bacteria were able to capture particles of during testing included cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel, among others.
The university team further noted that these minerals are key for developing electric vehicle batteries and motors, among other items, and are also often difficult to obtain.
Going forward, the team at the University of Edinburgh will continue testing and aim to confirm that the extracted metals from the bacteria can be used again in new systems. They also noted that although the study utilized naturally occurring strains of bacteria, modifying these bacteria with gene editing could potentially optimize the process, such as aiding in synthesizing two different metals simultaneously.
