EMSL Builds Capabilities for Critical Minerals and Materials Research

Over the next decade, the United States is focused on increasing and strengthening a domestic supply of critical minerals and materials to provide the nation with energy independence and sustainable energy technologies. 

To support these goals, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is leveraging its expertise, instrumentation, and resources to further research on critical minerals and materials extraction and recovery. EMSL is a Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, user facility located on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus and is sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program. 

In October, EMSL will open three research campaigns—two aimed at improving the understanding of biogeochemical processes that facilitate the extraction and recovery of critical minerals and materials in soils and other “unconventional” source materials such as mine tailings and fracking waste water streams—and a third that will explore how biomolecules and proteins contribute to increasing the concentration of critical metals and elements in microbial systems. The campaigns will involve collaborations between multiple users across institutions and be stewarded by EMSL staff scientists, providing expertise to deliver impactful user science. 

EMSL is holding a free, two-day community science meeting (Nov. 4–5) to identify gaps and opportunities in critical minerals and materials research and to inform the scientific focus of the campaigns. The meeting, which will be held at EMSL and online, supports BER’s research priority to advance bioinspired approaches for critical minerals and materials extraction and separation from low-grade ores and unconventional source materials. Registration for the meeting closes Wednesday, Oct. 1.

Critical minerals and materials  

Critical minerals and materials are natural substances, including nonfuel minerals and rare Earth elements, that contribute to the development and manufacturing of energy technologies as well as hold promise for decarbonization. 

The 2023 DOE Critical Materials List includes aluminum, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, electrical steel, fluorine, gallium, iridium, lithium, magnesium, natural graphite, neodymium, nickel, platinum, praseodymium, terbium, silicon, and silicon carbide as energy materials with potential energy applications. The list also includes critical minerals as defined by the Department of the Interior. 

As a user facility, EMSL has long supported user research projects that provide valuable molecular insights into the properties and behavior of critical minerals and materials. For example, EMSL’s high field magnetic resonance capabilities can study mechanistic interactions between biomolecules and critical material metals, while EMSL’s advanced chemical and biological imaging capabilities can measure the locations, concentrations, and compositions of critical materials within environmental samples down to the nanometer scale. High resolution mass spectrometry is able to identify and quantify critical materials binding organic matter, metabolites, and proteins, producing rich data that can be used to enhance AI-based predictions. In addition to EMSL’s state-of-the-art instrumentation capable of analyzing and characterizing biological samples, organic matter, and inorganic materials, EMSL developed the Molecular Observation Network (MONet) capability that will be used in research campaigns to collect and analyze standardized molecular data from field samples across the continental United States to support exploration into critical minerals and materials. 

The roles of microbial biomolecules and proteins in critical minerals 

Metallophores and ionophores are biologically produced metabolites or proteins that may contribute to processes that increase the concentrations of critical minerals and elements within and surrounding microbial systems. However, analyzing and characterizing their roles in these processes require a variety of analytical capabilities. 

Using EMSL’s analytical instrumentation, chemist William Kew is spearheading a campaign titled, “Discovery and Characterization of Critical Metal-Binding Small Molecules and Proteins,” that will identify and characterize novel metallophores and ionophores to find potential applications in enhancing the extraction, concentration, and refining of critical minerals and elements. 

The campaign will explore the interactions between microbes and critical minerals and elements using EMSL’s advanced mass spectrometry for metabolomics and top-down proteomics, nuclear magnetic resonance for metabolites and structural biology (proteins), cryo-electron microscopy, nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry, and cell-free protein expression tools. 

Critical minerals biogeochemistry in unconventional sources 

In another EMSL campaign, titled “Critical Minerals Biogeochemistry in Unconventional Sources,” Earth scientist Odeta Qafoku will lead efforts to identify and characterize molecular and microscale mineral–water–microbe processes that dissolve and release critical minerals in mineral–water–microbe systems, such as mine tailings, coal seams, fracking waste streams, and geothermal produced waters. EMSL will adapt MONet’s standardized sample collection to include unconventional source materials and seek to understand processes in mineral-dominated systems at scale. The campaign is expected to contribute to building sustainable, microbially driven approaches to critical minerals recovery that support DOE’s energy security goals. 

Critical minerals biogeochemistry in the rhizosphere 

Amir Ahkami, biologist and the leader of the Rhizosphere Function Integrated Research Platform, is leading a similar campaign with a focus on the rhizosphere. In a campaign titled “Critical Minerals Biogeochemistry in the Rhizosphere – Ultramafic Soils,” scientists will identify and characterize the microbially driven molecular and transport mechanisms that help critical materials to dissolve and move at microbe–mineral–root interfaces. Using MONet’s soil core collection methods, researchers will explore the processes in soils at scale. Further, to understand these complex rhizosphere processes at mechanistic levels, standardized MONet data will be expanded to include pore- and molecular scale laboratory measurements. 

Ultramafic soils contain high concentrations of nickel. With nearly 75% of hyperaccumulator (HA) plant species being nickel hyperaccumulators, this campaign focuses on nickel transport and bioavailability in the rhizosphere of these plants. Data generated from the campaign will support the development of process and numeric models of rhizosphere processes that are relevant to the extraction of critical minerals and materials. 

The outcome of the campaign will enhance our understanding of how soil microbes and rhizosphere systems facilitate the delivery of essential minerals to plant roots. This knowledge will help optimize the deployment of soil-based technologies for phytomining and rhizosphere-derived mineral processing in the United States—a process in which plants and microbial rhizosphere processes can be harnessed to extract valuable minerals and metals from the soil.