Removal of rare earth elements and precious metal species by biosorption

Abstract

In Rare Earth Elements (REE) or Precious Metal Species (PMS) removal many types of biological phenomena can take place, such as biosorption, bioaccumulation, resistance/detoxification mechanisms, and direct or indirect utilization in the microbial metabolism. The high demand for the REE or PMS implies demand on increased production of ores containing REE or PMS (i.e. mining) and recycling of solutions to recover the elements contained in waste. But the use of REE and PMS in many anthropogenic applications and devices has led to an increased of public and environment exposure. The aim of this chapter is to compare under different operating conditions, the biosorption capacities of various microbial species and natural by-products for rare earth elements, to investigate the involved sorption mechanisms and to evaluate the potential industrial use of this process to metal ion removal. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.