On our way to a sustainable metal supply

With the escalating demand of metals in an increasing global population, Europe is confronted with the challenge to secure a sustainable metal supply. Lack of cost effective technology to extract heavy metals from hazardous, metal-rich fly ash collected in complex municipal solid waste streams has escalated societal challenges due to environmental as well as monetary costs. Fly ash could instead be a resource for metal recovery. Another challenging waste stream is hazardous waste from alumina production. The BIOMIMIC project addresses key problem areas of complex waste processing. The primary objective is to create and validate new biotechnological metallurgical methods that have the potential to concentrate metals in dilute solutions while leaving the residue free from toxic substances. It will be achieved through technology development of biotechnological methods pertaining to treatment of waste streams.

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