⛏️ Hyperaccumulator Plants: A Solution to the Growing Supply Chain Conundrum?

Photo by Ross Tek on Unsplash

Summary:

Enhanced hyperaccumulator plants drastically improve their ability to extract valuable metals from the land. This metal is then recovered from the biomass through different techniques to offer an alternative source of metals for the renewable energy supply chain.

A Quick Definition…

Hyperaccumulators = Plants which can grow in soil with high concentrations of metals, and absorb these metals into their tissue through their roots. 

The Problem

• Minerals are the major components of green technologies, like Nickel, and are increasingly polluting and depleting in their supply.

• The mining industry accounts for 4-7% of total GHG emissions.

• To reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, the International Energy Agency claims mineral requirements for clean energy technologies need to be quadrupled by 2040.

• As we increase our need for more green technologies, such as solar power or electric vehicles, their current supply chain will only become increasingly strained and polluting.

• Finding more sustainable, ethical and effective mining solutions to support our energy transition towards a renewable future has become

  However, leveraging the mining potential of nature through phytomining may represent an exciting opportunity to solve this growing issue. 

The Scape

PHYTOMINES: A Novel Process Becomes Catalyst for Renewable Energy Transition

Imagine in the not-so-distant future, instead of using traditional mining extraction methods, the neighbouring land to a city consists of acres of phytomining plants, turning previously barren land into acres of vegetation.

Fields of enhanced hyperaccumulator plants have been planted, each augmented through synthetic biology to increase the efficiency of their absorption capacity for extracting metals from the soil by 50-100x.

Especially in contaminated sites, this process brings a remediating effect on the land through its decontaminating and detoxifying effects.

The land that has been chosen is a small portion of the 35 million hectares globally that is rich in nickel, but not rich enough to be profitable for traditional mining methods.

This novel biotechnology opened the door for new industry, a way for the city to produce raw metals both locally and sustainably and help more broadly usher in a renewable energy transition.

As a result, these acres of phytomining spurred on battery and EV manufacturers to take root in the local area. Given the life cycle of the nickel in these EVs, locals are incentivised to purchase these vehicles given the decontamination of nearby land and economic boost to the community.

But what about the process itself?

These plants are optimised for growth through organic fertiliser sourced from a couple of factories in the local town. Ranging from seaweed to animal manure, combinations of fertiliser are experimented on to see which may help improve soil structure and promote most growth.

The harvest of these plants comes every several months as these plants are collected and sent to a processing unit nearby. The plants are dried in preparation for recovering the valuable metals from their plant tissue.

This can be done through various methods, but the city’s processing unit typically uses a sustainable bioleaching practice and electrolysis to recover the nickel.

Nickel is first sent to local manufacturers to build green technologies, with any surplus Nickel sent further afield to national and international manufacturers.

Downstream Value Creation

Phytomining offers some serious benefits for communities and supply chains both locally and globally, including:

1. Increased Nickel Supply for Renewable Energy Transition

   • Phytomining offers access to previously inaccessible Nickel through a process that emits at least 95% less CO2. This increased ability to build green technologies will help reduce GHG emissions in different industries.

2. Decontamination of Polluted Soil

   • Phytomining offers a ‘free of charge’ decontamination effect on land or soil that may be heavily polluted.

3. Increasingly Localised Supply Chains

   • Given this process opens up 35 million more hectares for nickel extraction, this can help empower certain countries to move away from the more existing global supply chains.

   For Digging Deeper…

Genomines

• Exciting biotech start-up at the frontier of this novel technique to absorb nickel sustainably.

Environmental Costs of Nickel Mining

• Article examining the environmental and social costs to the existing nickel mining industry.

Phytomining for Mining Clean Energy Metals

• An article assessing the benefits of this technology, with a particular focus on Genomines.