Biohydrometallurgical processing of urban mine wastes

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H04616
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Earth system and resources engineering
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Okibe Naoko 九州大学, 工学研究院, 准教授 (30604821)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 平島 剛 九州大学, 工学研究院, 教授 (00175556)
• Research Collaborator: Johnson Prof Barrie
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 都市鉱山 / 貴金属 / リサイクル / バイオナノ粒子 / レアアース

Outline of Final Research Achievements

(1)Precious metal leaching from PCB: By introducing the novel Thiourea Bioleaching method, compared to the past studies, reduction of the reagents consumption was shown possible, while facilitating Au dissolution.
(2)Precious metal bionanoparticles production: Acidophilic Fe(III)-reducing bacterium was successfully used for intracellular gold recovery as bio-AuNPs from highly acidic Au(III) solutions via a simple one-step reaction. It was also possible to accumulate precious metal nanoparticles from the actual PCB leachate obtained from (1).
(3) Rare earth elements leaching from spent catalysts: The spent hydro-processing catalysts contained mainly aluminum oxide and zeolite-Y as supporters for La, the active component in the form of lanthanum oxide (La2O3). Biogenic citric acids were shown effective to recover La from spent hydro-processing catalysts.

Free Research Field

Biohydrometallurgy

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本は世界的にも都市鉱山資源を多く保有しており、ベースメタル・レアメタル・貴金属の再資源化法の開発が重要である。本研究では、微生物学的反応を基盤とする低コスト・低環境負荷型のクリーンな新規バイオ処理プロセスを開発することを目的とした。環境汚染の要因となる一方で主要な都市鉱山資源となり得るプリント回路基板や廃触媒試料から、新たなバイオプロセスにより効果的に各種有価金属を抽出する方法を開発した。