For many high-tech products, such as electric motors, hard disk drives, LEDs, smartphones, wind turbines, etc., rare earth elements are essential components. These elements belong to a group of 17 specialty metals and are currently not produced within the EU. Therefore, the recycling of these elements will play a major role in the future.
The BIOPEPLEACH team, constisting of three UniSysCat researchers (Ana Maria Pérez-López, Adam Belsom and cluster speaker Juri Rappsilber) together with members of BIOWEG GmbH, recently won the SPRIND start-up challenge on Tech Metal Transformation with their bioacid-peptide platform to recover rare earth metals. The team will be supported in the first funding stage with up to €1.5 million, with the possibility of further funding increases if they are successful in two additional competitive follow-up stages.
BIOPEPLEACH aims to implement a biohybrid platform for the sustainable recovery of ultra-pure rare earth elements from complex waste streams. To achieve this, fermentation-derived bioacids from industrial side streams will be combined with highly selective metal-binding peptides for bioleaching, capture, and recovery of rare earths with high purity and yield. This unique combination of waste-based bioacid chemistry and peptide selectivity provides a novel biotechnological route beyond traditional hydrometallurgy. In doing so, the approach will drastically reduce chemical consumption while enabling a cleaner and more circular recovery of rare earth metals.