Metal-Loving Microbes Offer A Green Way To Refine Rare Earth Elements

03 Oct 2023 | Abstracted from Phys.org

"Cornell scientists have characterized the genome of Shewanella oneidensis - a metal-loving bacteria with an affinity for rare earth elements - to replace the harsh chemical processing with a benign practice called biosorption.

"S. oneidensis prefers dining on the f-block elements residing in the sixth row of the periodic table, known as the lanthanides...The mutant genes found in the bacteria by the scientists can reduce the length of that rare earth element purification process by almost one-third...€5.2-million (US$5.44-million) starting price"

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