Biobased Method Could Extract Domestic Supply of Rare-Earth Elements
An eco-friendly way to extract and separate rare earth elements (REEs) from unconventional sources has been demonstrated by researchers at Penn State and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The method relies on a bacterial protein that is almost a billion times better at binding to REEs than to other metals. The protein, called lanmodulin, was previously discovered by the same research team. According to the researchers, the new method could be scaled up to extract and separate REEs from low-grade sources, including industrial and electronic wastes, to help establish a U.S....Read full article
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