Bioleaching as an Eco-Friendly Nano-Factory for Sustainable Inorganic Waste Management: Current Advancements, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

Inorganic waste management and metal recovery technology pose significant challenges to the global research community and policymakers. Bioleaching is an economical, eco-friendly, and sustainable technology used for extracting metals and nanoparticles from inorganic waste streams, including e-waste, fly ash, ore, spent batteries, and petroleum catalysts. Valuable metals are recovered from these waste materials by microbial action. Bioleaching occurs by redoxolysis, acidolysis, and complexolysis processes. The present review provides insights into global trends and hazards of e-waste while also discussing the bioleaching of metals and nanoparticles from various inorganic wastes. In addition, the review focuses on the mechanistic pathway of the bioleaching process and computational aspects, such as the response surface method employed for enhanced recovery of metals from solid waste materials. Various physicochemical and biological parameters influencing metal bioleaching, as well as economic impacts and challenges affecting the bioleaching of metals from solid wastes, are discussed.