Advances in bioleaching as a sustainable method for metal recovery from e-waste: A review

Advances in bioleaching as a sustainable method for metal recovery from e-waste: A review

Electronic waste (e-waste) accumulation on earth is a serious environmental challenge. The need forheavy metal recovery, together with the profitability of precious and base metals, are strong incentivesfor researchers tofind a sustainable method for metal recovery from e-waste. The scientific community istrying to improve the efficiency of metal recovery from e-wastes using bioleaching, a more sustainablemethod in comparison to traditional methods. In this review, available methods and the kinetic modelsthat describe the bioleaching processes, and also their limitations, are reviewed. In addition, theapplication of new approaches to understand how the contribution of microorganisms and their geneticmodification can affect the processes, are reviewed.

Electronic waste (e-waste) accumulation on earth is a serious environmental challenge. The need forheavy metal recovery, together with the profitability of precious and base metals, are strong incentivesfor researchers tofind a sustainable method for metal recovery from e-waste. The scientific community istrying to improve the efficiency of metal recovery from e-wastes using bioleaching, a more sustainablemethod in comparison to traditional methods. In this review, available methods and the kinetic modelsthat describe the bioleaching processes, and also their limitations, are reviewed. In addition, theapplication of new approaches to understand how the contribution of microorganisms and their geneticmodification can affect the processes, are reviewed.