Ongoing microbiological research at Montana State University was featured last week by the federal Department of Energy for its unique impact.
“Bio-Mining Fool’s Gold” was featured by the DOE Office of Science as part of its Science Highlight series. The series draws special attention to around 200 projects annually from thousands of research findings generated by laboratories, colleges and universities nationwide for their particular interest and scientific progress.
The special feature from the DOE highlights research led by Eric Boyd, a professor in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology. In a multidisciplinary project with faculty and students in and the College of Letters and Science’s departments of Earth Science and Chemistry & Biochemistry, Boyd studies a group of unique microorganisms, focusing particularly on their ability to extract iron, sulfur and other trace elements such as nickel, molybdenum and cobalt – elements that are critical for organism growth – from the mineral pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, which is abundant in the earth’s crust. Extracting those elements from pyrite happens through a process called biomining.
Generally, biomining requires oxygen, and the process of extracting those minerals can create byproducts that are environmentally harmful. The organisms Boyd studies don’t need oxygen for the process, which also eliminates the harmful byproducts.
“Our project was motivated by the realization that there are microbial cells that can take pyrite and extract the iron and sulfur, then convert these metals to enzymes which are of key importance in the production of hydrogen gas and nitrogen fertilizers,” said Boyd. His work focuses largely on identifying exactly how these microbes extract these metals.
Being able to access minerals such as iron, sulfur, nickel, molybdenum and cobalt more easily could unlock advances in renewable energy and technology, said Boyd, because they have uses in everything from magnets and wind turbines to computers and solar panels. The ongoing work was funded by the DOE Office of Science in a $3.4 million grant awarded in 2021.
The research was also recently recognized for a presentation given by one of the graduate students in the Boyd Lab.
“Renewable energy technologies will require significant amounts of nickel, molybdenum and cobalt,” said Boyd. “Through this work, we hope to make recovery of such metals from domestic sources more economically viable and thereby decrease our foreign dependence, which supports the goals of the Department of Energy." The full series of Science Highlights from the DOE can be found at energy.gov/science/listings/science-highlights.
Eric Boyd, eric.boyd@montana.edu or 406-994-7046
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