: “Developing Biotechnologies for Detection and Recovery of Rare Earth Elements” — Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers funding opportunity
Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers · Federal agency

: “Developing Biotechnologies for Detection and Recovery of Rare Earth Elements”

Background: Rare earth elements (REE) are critical components of many advanced technologies including magnets in hard drives and components of lasers. Of the 17 rare earth elements, 16 (cerium, and yttrium) are designate...

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Award $0–$350k Deadline 1460 days ago Location Alabama Type grant Level Federal Closed posted Jul 1, 2022
✦ AI Summary
  • Who can apply: Federal-level applicants (see eligibility for details).
  • Funding amount: up to $350,000.
  • Next deadline: August 19, 2022.
  • Issued by: Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers.
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How was this generated?

The “key facts” mode pulls structured fields directly from the official source posting (amount, deadline, eligibility tags). The AI mode adds a short plain-English narrative on top, generated from the same source. Always verify with the agency before applying.

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Who can apply — at a glance

  • Eligible applicants: see the Eligibility tab for the criteria from the official announcement.
  • Where: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, District of Columbia.
  • Award: $0–$350k.
  • Matching funds: not required.
  • Deadline type: Fixed.

Compiled from the official listing's structured fields — always verify with the funder before applying.

About the funder

Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers is a federal-level funder.

Award amount
$0–$350k
Deadline
1460 days ago
Aug 19, 2022

About this opportunity

Background: Rare earth elements (REE) are critical components of many advanced technologies including magnets in hard drives and components of lasers. Of the 17 rare earth elements, 16 (cerium, and yttrium) are designated critical minerals and are present in different combinations and concentrations depending on the primary ( ores, red mud, geological deposits) and secondary (e-waste, coal ash and landfill leachate) sources of the critical minerals. Of these 16, all except for cerium and lanthanum, are in undersupply. Individual REE are used in different combinations to develop advanced technologies necessitating the isolation of elements from primary and secondary sources and the purification of defined REE mixtures or individual elements. However current approaches are energy and solvent intensive and do not easily separate the different REE from each other. Biotechnology applications such as bioleaching and biosorption are promising approaches for REE recovery but require further research and development to increase effectiveness and scalability. Brief Description of Anticipated Work: Required Work Objectives: This project will develop novel microbes with increased capability to dissolve and capture REE from solid sources such as crushed ore and e-waste. The project will also examine approaches to increase the selectivity and affinity of biomolecules for different REE. Additionally, the project will investigate different technologies/approaches that improve scalability of REE recovery processes ( concentration and monitoring of REEs during processing). The ultimate goal of this effort is to develop methods that accelerate our ability to recover individual or discrete mixtures of REE from domestic primary and secondary sources. Objective 1: Increase the selectivity and affinity of biomolecules for different REE. Create semi-synthetic platforms for specific lanthanide-binding, with the reliance on modification of proteins and spores using designed chemical structures for chelation moieties. These platforms should improve the concentration of lanthanides by spores and proteins, while providing methods for tuning protein/spore affinity and selectivity. The specificities of both the semi-synthetic and protein-alone chelators should be further modified using computational models to design peptides and proteins with a variety of affinities and specificities for REE.Objective 2: Technologies/approaches that improve scalability of REE recovery processes. Surfaces of fluorescent proteins should be modified to create protein biosensors that can bind lanthanides with high affinity and selectivity, and also allow FRET detection both in vitro and in vivo of lanthanides (samarium, dysprosium). Such biosensors will serve as tools for monitoring the efficiencies of processing streams and of the efficacies of different technologies. The successful offeror work with ERDC researchers to examine novel approaches to condense process streams to increase efficiency of downstream processing events.Results from these objectives will be communicated to ERDC regularly in interim reports and transferred to the Public using conference presentations and the peer-reviewed literature. All methods and protocols will accompany the results and meet peer-review scrutiny for any interim reports. A successful application would likely include experience with genetic engineering of spores, molecular evolution and synthetic biology, and successful publication record of these methods. Public Benefit: Development of approaches to harvest critical minerals from domestic sources is essential to establishing secure domestic supply chains for REE. Furthermore, the environmentally friendly biotechnologies developed here will greatly lower adverse environmental and climate effects caused by existing REE mining approaches. Further, understanding how to selectively isolate REE from many sources will greatly increase our ability to isolate other critical minerals.

Funding agency

Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers
Federal agency

Tags

Healthcare & Biotech Manufacturing Technology & Software Energy & Utilities Education & Research Climate & Environment Science, Tech & Engineering (STEM)
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Who can apply

Eligibility details aren't on file yet — check the agency source link in the Documents tab for the latest rules.

Geographic eligibility

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming
  • District of Columbia

How to apply

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Source documents

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Canonical NOFO, application packet, and forms
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Citation details

Source systemgrants.gov
Source ID341664
PostedJul 1, 2022

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