Novel Rhamnolipid Surfactants for (Recovery of Critical Elements and) Remediation of Metal Contaminated Waste Streams

Project Summary andampAbstract Industrial processes produce difficult to treat wastewater containing environmental contaminants in the form of dissolved metalsmany of which pose a potential health hazard to plantsanimalsand humansExamples include mining industry effluentswastewater treatment effluents and landfill leachatesIn many casesthese waste streams cannot be treated cost effectivelyConsequentlymassive quantities of wastewater are quarantined for expensive treatment and subsequent dischargedisposed of undergroundor discharged into our surface water supply leading to a significant impact on environmental and human healthRemediation of these waste streams is traditionally accomplished through a variety of technologies ranging from chemical precipitation to membrane filtrationThe technology used is highly dependent on the effluent typeand each technology has intrinsic advantages and drawbacksWhile chemical precipitation is simple and capital investments are inexpensiveit is inefficient process at low metal concentrationsnon selectiveand generates large amounts of sludge which requires subsequent treatmentOn the other handmembrane filtration technologies have high metal removal efficiencies and generate minimal wastebut they are extremely expensive to operatehave high operational complexityand suffer from membrane foulingThis Phase I SBIR will combine a proprietary process to manufacture green bioinspired metal selective sugar based surfactants with ion flotation technology for efficient and cost effective removal of toxic metals and rare earth elementsREEfrom wastewater solutionsThis new technology will create a saleable product of metals of strategic importance to the US and facilitate water reuse through removal of toxic metals from waste streamsPreliminary data using simple solutionshas demonstrated that biosynthetic rhamnolipids are highly effective at capturing both rare earths and heavy metalseven in the presence of common soil cations such as sodiumpotassiumand calciumDuring the Phase I effortGlycoSurf and its University of Arizona partnerwill work onspecific Aimsmodel and real world effluent characterizationcharacterize metal removal from model and real world solutions via ion flotationandevaluation of performance and scale up cost estimationSuccessful completion of the specific aims will facilitate the pathway to commercialization of the novel technology to protect water suppliesand ultimately human and environmental healthwhile simultaneously creating a novel pathway for the production of saleable REE Public Health Narrative Metal contamination of the environment is a serious and widespread problem that poses serious risks to environmental and human healthGlycoSurf and the University of Arizona propose a novel technology using green environmentally friendly rhamnolipid surfactants in combination with ion flotation for recovery of toxic and precious metalsincluding rare earth elements from wastewaterSuccessful application of this technology will allow safe reuse of contaminated water and provide a source of rare earth elements that are in short supply but critically needed for technology development