Zinc recovery from bioleachate using a microbial electrolysis cell and comparison with selective precipitation.

Metal recycling is essential for strengthening a circular economy. Microbial leaching (bioleaching) is an economical and environmentally friendly technology widely used to extract metals from insoluble ores or secondary resources such as dust, ashes, and slags. On the other hand, microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) would offer an energy-efficient application for recovering valuable metals from an aqueous solution.

Bioelectrochemical methanation by utilization of steel mill off-gas in a two-chamber microbial electrolysis cell.

Carbon capture and utilization has been proposed as one strategy to combat global warming. Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) combine the biological conversion of carbon dioxide (CO) with the formation of valuable products such as methane. This study was motivated by the surprising gap in current knowledge about the utilization of real exhaust gas as a CO source for methane production in a fully biocatalyzed MEC.