Buz Barstow: trying to extract rare earth elements from rocks

According to foreign media reports, Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University, said he was trying to propose an environmentally friendly, low-temperature and low-pressure method to extract rare earth elements from rocks.

​From computers, mobile phones, screens, microphones, wind turbines, electric vehicles and conductors to radar, sonar, LED lights and rechargeable batteries, these elements are essential in the periodic table of 15 elements.

In order to meet the annual demand for rare earth elements in the United States, it takes about 71.5 million tons (~ 78.8 million tons) of raw ore to extract 10000 kg (~ 22000 pounds) of elements.

The current method relies on dissolving rocks with hot sulfuric acid and then separating very similar individual elements in the solution from each other with organic solvents.

"We wanted to find a way to make a mistake that would do the job better," Barstow said

G. Oxydans are famous for making an acid called biolixivian to dissolve rocks. Bacteria use acid to extract phosphate from rare earth elements. Researchers have begun to manipulate the gene of G. oxydans so that it can extract elements more effectively.

To this end, the researchers used a technology called knockout Sudoku developed with Barstow's help, which enabled them to disable 2733 genes in the g. oxydans genome one by one. The team planned mutants, each with a specific gene knocked out, so they could determine which genes played a role in extracting elements from rocks.