Treasure hunt in hot springs?

Demand for precious metals and rare earths is expected to continue to increase in the future. Due to the limited production area, recycling of precision equipment and recovery of seawater and hot springs is necessary to ensure a stable supply.

A research group led by Professor Masayuki Azuma and Associate Professor Yoshihiro Ojima of the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering has successfully developed an absorbent material that can selectively recover rare earth elements (REE) using environmentally friendly and inexpensive baker’s yeast and trimetaphosphate, i.e. used as a food additive.

The research group conducted experiments using synthetic seawater and hot springs to evaluate the performance of this material in a real environment. As a result, it was confirmed that the material could selectively adsorb REEs even when using hot springs with REE concentrations of several to several tens of ppb (µg/L) and very high content of other components.

“This new technology is expected to contribute to the realization of a metal resource circulation society and a safe society through environmental purification. Going forward, we will continue to conduct experiments on various environmental waters with the aim of building a system capable of treating large amounts of metal resources through continuous operation,” said Professor Azuma.

The results are published in Environmental Technology & Innovation.

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Osaka Metropolitan University is a new public university founded in April 2022, formed by the merger between Osaka City University and Osaka Prefectural University. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ or follow @OsakaMetUniv_en And #OMUSscience.