Bioleaching mobilization of magnesium from currently unexploited calcination by products

Market Maturity: Business Ready

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Market Creation Potential

This innovation was assessed by the JRC’s Market Creation Potential indicator framework as addressing the needs of existing markets and existing customers. Learn more

Women-led innovation

A woman had a leadership role in developing this innovation in at least one of the Key Innovator organisations listed below.

Go to Market needs

Needs that, if addressed, can increase the chances this innovation gets to (or closer to) the market incude:

Prepare for Market entry
Scale-up market opportunities

Location of Key Innovators developing this innovation

UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDG)

This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 7

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

The UN explains: "Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity the world faces today. Be it for jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes, access to energy for all is essential.

Transitioning the global economy towards clean and sustainable sources of energy is one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades. Sustainable energy is an opportunity – it transforms lives, economies and the planet."

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The UN explains: "Investments in infrastructure – transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology – are crucial to achieving sustainable development and empowering communities in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and incomes, and improvements in health and education outcomes require investment in infrastructure."

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 13

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

The UN explains: "Affordable, scalable solutions are now available to enable countries to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies. The pace of change is quickening as more people are turning to renewable energy and a range of other measures that will reduce emissions and increase adaptation efforts."

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 15

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat deertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

The UN explains: "Forests cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface and in addition to providing food security and shelter, forests are key to combating climate change, protecting biodiversity and the homes of the indigenous population. Thirteen million hectares of forests are being lost every year while the persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares."

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The EU-funded Research Project

This innovation was developed under the Horizon 2020 project BIORECOVER with an end date of 29/02/2024

Read more about this project on CORDIS

Description of Project BIORECOVER

The objective of BIORECOVER is the R&D of a new sustainable & safe process, essentially based on biotechnology, for selective extraction of a range of Critical Raw Materials, from relevant unexploited secondary & primary sources: -Rare Earths from Bauxite Residue from Greece (MYTILINEOS) -Magnesium from Mg wastes of low grade minerals and calcination by-products- from Spain (MAGNA) -Platinum Group Metals from flotation tailings from South Africa (UWITS) & PGM slags, dusts and press cake from United Kingdom (JM) To this end, BIORECOVER will be based on the integration of 3 main stages to reach the expected recovery rates (90%), selectivity (95%) & purity (99%) (TRL from 2-3 to 5): (1) Remove the major impurities presents in raw materials sources to achieve the greater availability of the target metals for their recovery. (2) Mobilise these metals through specific and improved microorganisms to get a leachate enriched with the target CRMs. (3) Development of a specific technology for recovering metals with high selectivity & purity that meet the quality requirements for its reuse. Downstream processes will be also studied of the recovered metals for their reuse (brakes pads, oxygen sensors, powder Mg & catalysts). The different stages of the process provide it modular capacity increasing its adaptation flexibility and thus, further market penetration. LCA & LCC and a Decision Making Framework will support these aims. The awareness, trust & acceptance of the society about the importance of raw materials will be addressed by an awareness campaign and public perception studies. The project results will contribute to EU bio-mining knowledge (RMIS) and a communication with other key project will be also set up. To achieve this ambitious project, a multidisciplinary consortium covering the whole value chain (from suppliers to end users) will be involved, being represented 7 member states across EU (ES, DK, FR, LE, PT, SE & UK) and effective international cooperation with ZA

Innnovation Radar's analysis of this innovation is based on data collected on 22/04/2024.
The unique id of this innovation in the European Commission's IT systems is: 121601