Abstract
Tantalum (Ta) is the one of the most critical elements according to the European Commission. Research on tantalum recovery from secondary sources such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), bottom ash and by products of the industrial activities, however, is limited. In this study, the recovery potential of tantalum from spent tantalum capacitors was tested using bioleaching. Three different kinds of microorganisms were tested for tantalum recovery, which were Pseudomonas putida (DSM No. 6125), Bacillus subtilis (DSM No. 1088532), and Penicillium simplicissimum (DSM No. 1078). It turned out that P. simplicissimum has the ability to leach tantalum from wasted tantalum capacitors with a maximium leaching rate of 1.25 g Ta per kg sample. An unknown species achieved the highest leaching rate (9.88 g Ta / kg sample) but isolation and identification failed. The potential of tantalum recovery by bioleaching is demonstrated, however, further research needs to be carried out.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support from BMBF (The Federal Ministry of Education and Research) through the project ªBiotechnological Approach For Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements And Precious Metals From E-Waste (BIOREEs), Project Number: 01DL14004. We are grateful to Asma Sikander, Ayah Alassali, Julia Hobohm, Nils Wieczorek, and Jinyang Guo as they helped us during the experimental study.
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Kucuker, M.A., Xu, X., Kuchta, K. (2019). Extraction Potential of Tantalum from Spent Capacitors Through Bioleaching. In: Pehlken, A., Kalverkamp, M., Wittstock, R. (eds) Cascade Use in Technologies 2018. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57886-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57886-5_7
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