G8-2012 Catalysing the Growth in Metal Recovery (PHYTOCAT)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
Climate change and peak oil crises have been making headlines with increasing intensity and solutions are being sought to lessen our dependence on oil. As new technologies tackle one challenge we are creating another through resource deficit. Many low carbon technologies including wind turbines, electric cars and catalytic converters require precious metals or other metals in unprecedented quantities threatening their continued availability in the middle term. These elements are being dispersed throughout our environment, making them costly and difficult to recover. This emphasises the necessity for a new approach to metal capture and use, thus increasing the lifetime of our reserves. We suggest a new direction for turning this vision into reality.
Initial studies indicate that plants are capable of phytomining platinum group metals (PGM) to form stable metal nanoparticles that are active in a variety of industrially important reactions. We intend to utilise mine tailings or waste mining waters to pass through plant beds for metal adsorption. The resulting plants will be subjected to controlled pyrolysis to yield a material with stabilised nanoparticles of PGM for use as heterogeneous catalysts. This offers an effective solution to an international problem of metal depletion and will lead to the development of a new range of naturally derived catalysts.
Project collaborators consist of a multidisciplinary team that incorporate the following essential expertise: The Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Materials (CERM3) at The University of British Columbia (UBC), who will gather information on worldwide distributions of PGM ore bodies, provide mine tailing/water samples and compositional analysis. The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCC) and Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) at the University of York (UoY) will carry out the research into the plant growth, characterization and application of the catalysts. Finally, the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Yale) will carry out life cycle, economical and societal assessment to determine what impact the project will have on the wider world.
Initial studies indicate that plants are capable of phytomining platinum group metals (PGM) to form stable metal nanoparticles that are active in a variety of industrially important reactions. We intend to utilise mine tailings or waste mining waters to pass through plant beds for metal adsorption. The resulting plants will be subjected to controlled pyrolysis to yield a material with stabilised nanoparticles of PGM for use as heterogeneous catalysts. This offers an effective solution to an international problem of metal depletion and will lead to the development of a new range of naturally derived catalysts.
Project collaborators consist of a multidisciplinary team that incorporate the following essential expertise: The Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Materials (CERM3) at The University of British Columbia (UBC), who will gather information on worldwide distributions of PGM ore bodies, provide mine tailing/water samples and compositional analysis. The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCC) and Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) at the University of York (UoY) will carry out the research into the plant growth, characterization and application of the catalysts. Finally, the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Yale) will carry out life cycle, economical and societal assessment to determine what impact the project will have on the wider world.
Planned Impact
To ensure maximum impact of these results, the consortium will develop novel schemes and methodologies for knowledge transfer and application, for education/training and to raising awareness of options for the use of plants to accumulate low concentrations of high value metals for the subsequent conversion to active catalysts for the chemical industry. Project dissemination and exploitation of results will be carried out via a multi-pronged approach, as there are a broad range of stakeholders who would directly benefit from the knowledge generated in PHYTOCAT including: policy makers, chemical industries, mining industry, farmers, academic community & the general public.
The PHYTOCAT consortium will develop individually tailored dissemination activities, educational material and training packages incorporating the project results and case studies for all of the above stakeholders to ensure maximum impact of the project and result in the exploitation of results. These will be delivered via a conferences, publications, in-house delivery, websites, social networking tools and by engaging other organisations such as NGOs. The programme of dissemination activities will encourage cross-country and cross-sector transfer of knowledge.
A major education strategy for the PHYTOCAT consortium is the integration of educational material into academic curricula e.g. graduate level training programmes of the project partners, to inspire a new generation of scientists to develop the mindset of viewing waste mine tailings and the production of catalyst through new routes of bioaccumulation as a valuable resource. Through international organisations such as the Green Chemistry Network (www.greenchemistrynetwork.org), the consortium will seek to further disseminate educational material for use across the globe and this material will also be made available on the PHYTOCAT website. An exchange programme for employees of consortia partners and in particular young researchers i.e. postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. The exchange programme will serve to promote greater interconnectivity between the individual WPs and to enhance understanding of various technologies and new developments within the partnership.
Partners in the consortium already have a wide range of contacts in both G8 and non-G8 countries within relevant industries and these will be combined and expanded during the course of the project to facilitate the development of a database of contacts in industries capable of using the technologies. Platinum group metal accumulation will be used as a model for exemplifying the benefits of developing catalysts through the grow of plants on low value waste mine tailings and will hence encourage cross-sector transfer of knowledge.
Popular social networking tools will be used for public engagement, to promote videos developed by the consortium on the benefits of converting bioaccumulating plants into useful enviromental catalytic product.
The PHYTOCAT consortium will develop individually tailored dissemination activities, educational material and training packages incorporating the project results and case studies for all of the above stakeholders to ensure maximum impact of the project and result in the exploitation of results. These will be delivered via a conferences, publications, in-house delivery, websites, social networking tools and by engaging other organisations such as NGOs. The programme of dissemination activities will encourage cross-country and cross-sector transfer of knowledge.
A major education strategy for the PHYTOCAT consortium is the integration of educational material into academic curricula e.g. graduate level training programmes of the project partners, to inspire a new generation of scientists to develop the mindset of viewing waste mine tailings and the production of catalyst through new routes of bioaccumulation as a valuable resource. Through international organisations such as the Green Chemistry Network (www.greenchemistrynetwork.org), the consortium will seek to further disseminate educational material for use across the globe and this material will also be made available on the PHYTOCAT website. An exchange programme for employees of consortia partners and in particular young researchers i.e. postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. The exchange programme will serve to promote greater interconnectivity between the individual WPs and to enhance understanding of various technologies and new developments within the partnership.
Partners in the consortium already have a wide range of contacts in both G8 and non-G8 countries within relevant industries and these will be combined and expanded during the course of the project to facilitate the development of a database of contacts in industries capable of using the technologies. Platinum group metal accumulation will be used as a model for exemplifying the benefits of developing catalysts through the grow of plants on low value waste mine tailings and will hence encourage cross-sector transfer of knowledge.
Popular social networking tools will be used for public engagement, to promote videos developed by the consortium on the benefits of converting bioaccumulating plants into useful enviromental catalytic product.
Organisations
Publications
Dodson J
(2015)
Bio-derived materials as a green route for precious & critical metal recovery and re-use
in Green Chemistry
Doroshenko A
(2019)
Using in vivo nickel to direct the pyrolysis of hyperaccumulator plant biomass
in Green Chemistry
Harumain ZA
(2017)
Toward Financially Viable Phytoextraction and Production of Plant-Based Palladium Catalysts.
in Environmental science & technology
Hunt A
(2014)
Phytoextraction as a tool for green chemistry
in Green Processing and Synthesis
Hunt A
(2013)
Element Recovery and Sustainability
Hunt, Andrew; Clark, James. H.; Kraus, George A.; Stankiewicz, Andrzej; Clark, James. H.; Van Gerven, Tom; Abbott, Andrew P; Li, Sam F Y; Anderson, Christopher; Natrajan, Louise
(2013)
Element Recovery and Sustainability
Muñoz García A
(2015)
Starch-derived carbonaceous mesoporous materials (Starbon®) for the selective adsorption and recovery of critical metals
in Green Chemistry
Nassar N
(2015)
Limitations to elemental substitution as exemplified by the platinum-group metals
in Green Chemistry
Parker HL
(2014)
Supported palladium nanoparticles synthesized by living plants as a catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura reactions.
in PloS one
Taylor AF
(2014)
Investigating the toxicity, uptake, nanoparticle formation and genetic response of plants to gold.
in PloS one
| Description | The PHYTOCAT project aimed to address three strategic gaps in the current scientific knowledge within the scientific areas of phytomining, nanoparticle formation and catalyst production. The first step was to investigate the possibility of using mine wastes as a source of platinum group metals (PGMs) for green and efficient nanoparticle (NP) formation. The second step was to examine the potential use of these NPs in situ for a range of environmental and industrial catalytic applications. Finally, this project aimed to produce a life cycle analysis (LCA) on the production of PGM and catalysts using the PHYTOCAT-based methodologies. WP1 Outcomes (UBC, Canada) The objectives of the WP1 workstream were to identify potential Pd-rich substrates (rocks and soil); to sample and quantify the metal concentration in such substrates; to conduct growth trials on material that showed good potential for phytomining; and to send harvested biomass to the UK for catalyst testing. This summary report presents the key findings of the WP1 workstream. Key Findings Exploration for Pd-rich rocks and soils Palladium (Pd) and the other platinum-group metals (platinum, ruthenium, iridium, osmium, rhodium) are rare elements and are present at low concentration in the Earth's crust. However, they are useful metals in many chemical reactions and the combination of low supply and high demand has led to a historically high price. Mineral deposits that contain these metals are geochemically complex. This means that the metals are generally found in combination with other elements in a range of minerals, and processing to recover the metals in pure form is expensive and time consuming. The economic viability of any mine is dependent on the total volume of the deposit and the concentration of valuable metals in this deposit. A very large deposit (millions of tonnes of rock) can be viable at a relatively low concentration, whereas a smaller deposit must contain a higher concentration of metal. Economic parameters therefore mean that Pd can never be economically recovered from some deposits. Phytomining is an alternative metal recovery technique that may be suitable to deposits that are uneconomic for conventional mining. The economic viability of phytomining has been extensively assessed for gold in tailings and other waste rock, and gold phytomining has been proposed for areas of soil around the world that contain an elevated concentration of this metal. The potential of using phytomining to recover Pd from sub-economic ores has been less-well developed (the idea was the subject of masters research in New Zealand in 2002), but is a realistic proposition. WP1's first objective was to identify targets that could be assessed for the availability of rocks, ore, soil, tailings (substrate) that might be a viable resource for phytomining. Two targets were assessed as having good potential, and material was collected for growth trials. These targets were the North American Palladium Lac des Iles mine in Canada, and the Broken Hill Gossan in New South Wales, Australia. North American Palladium is a Canadian mining company that operates the Lac des Iles mine in Ontario Canada. Ore is mined from the ground (feed ore) and the metal-rich component of the rock is chemical and physically isolated. This concentrate is separated from the waste rock (tailings) before further chemical processing recovers Pd in pure form. The mining company was approached during the Phytocat project and provided samples of feed ore, concentrate and tailings for WP1 testwork. The presence of Pd was confirmed in all samples: feed ore, concentrate and tailings. However, the mineralogy of the high-Pd samples impeded plant growth. The North American Palladium deposit has a high concentration of other elements (Ni, As) that prevent plant growth. The pH of the material is very low and this is a function of the sulphide chemistry of the material that generates acid. The low pH increases the soluble salt concentration of the rock. These parameters all inhibit plant growth, making the material poorly suited to phytomining. No plant studies on North American Palladium were performed at UBC, however samples were sent to York Biology for their testing. The Broken Hill Gossan is a surface outcrop of highly weathered and metal rich rock (ultramafic) that contains perhaps the highest concentration of all PGM's anywhere in the world. The Broken Hill Gossan is within a mining area, but is not actually mined. Despite the high concentration of PGM's in the gossan, the volume is very low. The Broken Hill Gossan is globally unique in that it is a highly weather rock body that contains a very high concentration of valuable metals. The Gossan was hand mined 100 years ago by miners looking for copper. This has left pieces of gossan lying on the surface over a small area. Total volume of the gossan is low; the available mass would be less than 1000 tonnes and this makes the deposit uneconomic to mining operation. Weathering of the gossan has converted acid-generating sulphides in the rock into oxides, and this stabilised the pH and salt content which inhibited plant growth on the North American Palladium material. Three research projects were conducted by WP1 on the Broken Hill Gossan: 1. An analysis of the form and distribution of metals with the gossan (using scanning electron microscopy) 2. An assessment of the bioavailability of the metals in the gossan under both ambient environmental conditions and in the presence of chemicals that are used to promote metal solubility for plant uptake 3. Plant trials using Brassica juncea (mustard) and Cannabis sativa (hemp) where potassium cyanide was applied to the plants to promote metal uptake. The concentration of PGMs in the gossan makes this an ideal target for phytomining. Extrapolation of models for Au uptake by plants to Pd suggests that a Pd concentration in plants in the order of 1000 mg/kg should be possible from the Pd concentration in the gossan. Once processed, this could generate a 'phytocatalyst' with a Pd concentration in the order of 1%. However, during extraction and plant trials, WP1 determined that the high Cu concentration of the gossan is a major impediment to plant growth. Copper in the gossan is readily soluble, and inhibited the growth of mustard. Hemp was more tolerant of copper toxicity but grew poorly over about 100 days. During precious metal phytomining, plants do not accumulate Pd and Au during their growth cycle. The objective is for the plants to grow, and to only accumulate the target metals at the point of maximum biomass once a chemical treatment is applied to soil to induce solubility and uptake. The uptake of Pd from the gossan only happened over 2-5 days, immediately following treatment of the soil with potassium cyanide, at the end of the 100 day growth cycle for hemp. The final concentration of Pd in hemp was low (less than 50 mg/kg). The plants showed signs of poor health at the end of the growth phase (due to Cu toxicity) and the addition of cyanide to the soil added to Cu toxicity: cyanide also increased the soluble Cu concentration in the soil and therefore in the plants. The plants were killed by Cu toxicity before they were able to accumulate the target concentration of Pd. Hemp biomass was harvested and sent to York for testing, however growth trials on the Broken Hill Gossan failed to deliver the target Pd concentration in plants of 1,000 mg/kg. To achieve this target on the gossan, Cu toxicity must be overcome. This will be the subject of ongoing research by UBC in collaboration with Massey University in New Zealand. The is considerable scope for ongoing research on the Broken Hill Gossan. WP2 Outcomes (University of York, UK) Workpackage 2 within Phytocat, contained three main objectives. The first objective was to determine PGM uptake and NP formation in hydroponically-grown, Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) plants. This included testing the ability of metal hyperaccumulator species Arabidopsis halleri and Noccaea caerulescens to take up PGMs. The second objective was investigating the genetic basis behind uptake of PGMs in Arabidopsis, and GM-based strategies to enhance PGM uptake and NP formation. The final objective was to characterise the ability of selected plant species to take up and accumulate PGMs from synthetic ore and PGM mine samples. The studies focused predominantly on palladium due to the favourable catalytic properties of this element, availability of mine samples and cost. Key Findings The most significant achievements from the award are outlined below: 1. The hyperaccumulator species Arabidiopsis halleri and Noccaea caerulescens are known to accumulate nickel, but their ability to accumulate PGMs had not been previously tested. Nickel shares periodicity with both palladium and platinum, but studies in Phytocat found no hyperaccumuation of PGMs by these species. 2. The PGMs are considered to be biologically inert in soils existing either in zero-valent, elemental forms, or covalently bound to mineral residues. Agar plate and hydroponic studies demonstrated that palladium is toxic to Arabidopsis, inhibiting germination and growth at >5 micromolar concentrations. 3. Gene expression studies were founded upon earlier, microarray-based research using gold. Gold shares a number of chemical properties with palladium indicating that palladium treatment might elicit similar genetic responses to those from gold. The target gene family, a small family of metal transporters, was found to be upregulated in response to both gold and palladium. These genes are involved in copper transport, but a key finding was that one member of this family was specifically and highly upregulated in response to gold and palladium. Subsequent, preliminary yeast expression studies indicated that this tranporter is able to transport gold and palladium. To our knowledge a gold/palladium plant transporter has not yet been characterised. 4. Studies to enhance PGM uptake and NP formation in planta were based on earlier reports in the literature demonstrating that a bacterial metal reductase can use gold as a substrate, and that expressing this reductase in Arabidopsis conferred enhanced resistance to not just mercury, but gold also. Given both the chemical similarities between gold and palladium, and similarities in the gene expression responses in Arabidopsis, it was thought that this reductase could have activity towards palladium. However, thorough testing of recombinantly expressed, purified protein demonstrated conclusively that gold is a mixed inhibitor of this reductase displaying both competitive and non-competitive inhibition. This shows that gold is both interfering with the binding of mercury to this protein, and reducing subsequent turnover efficiency. Similar inhibition was observed with palladium, but the results were less clear due to the chemical properties of palladium in solutions (Palladium is very insoluble, and can form complexes with other ions in solution). Our studies on Arabidopsis plants expressing the reductase confirmed that mercury resistance could be inhibited by the presence of gold or palladium. 5. To characterise the ability of selected plant species to take up and accumulate PGMs from synthetic ore and PGM mine samples, we investigated initially, white mustard (Brassica alba L.), as an extension to the studies in Arabidopsis, then the bioenergy crop species miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus) and willow (Salix sp.). A synthetic palladium-rich synthetic ore was created for test work. Using the synthetic ore enabled the concentration of palladium to be controlled in a background material that did not contain phytotoxic levels of metals (such as nickel) that are often present in mine samples and wastes. To investigate the relationship between the in planta palladium concentration and catalytic activity of the subsequent pyrolysed biomass, liquid culture grown Arabidopsis plants were dosed with a range of palladium concentrations. The palladium content in the dried plant biomass was determined using ICP-MS and catalytic activity determined using the Heck reaction. The results established the minimum concentration of palladium needed in the dry plant biomass is required to yield catalytic activity. In order to assess this technology in species more suited to in-field application, white mustard, willow and miscanthus were tested in studies using synthetic ore material and mine samples. Palladium uptake was observed in all three test species, with the application of cyanide increasing uptake by up to 500-fold. Testing a range of sixteen willow species and cultivars revealed large variations in biomass production and palladium uptake levels. Together, the results indicated that, under the time-limited, and single solubilisation treatment used, palladium levels were already up to 10 % of those needed to deliver biomass with catalytic activity. The above Key Findings are of interest to the academic community, particularly those with interests in metals in biology. WP3 Outcomes The objectives of WP3 were to carry out catalyst manufacture, characterisation and stabilisation of plant materials produced by WP2. The initial plan was for the materials to be used as catalysts for use in C-C coupling reactions. However, it became apparent that the materials were suitable for other potential catalytic uses, which were investigated. Key Findings (University of York, UK) The activity of the various materials produced throughout the Phytocat project are summarised in Figure 1. These are the best results achieved from optimised reaction conditions. Unfortunately only the arabidopsis gave catalytic activity that was comparable to palladium on carbon (Pd/C), the commercially available catalyst used throughout this work for comparison. The arabidopsis plants containing 8% Pd worked exceptionally well as catalysts. The materials catalysed a range of different Heck and Suzuki reactions. They were also reusable up to 4 times with only minor loss of activity (whilst Pd/C became inactive after the first use). These results led to a successful publication in PLOS One (H. L. Parker, E. L. Rylott, A. J. Hunt, J. R. Dodson, A. F. Taylor, N. C. Bruce and J. H. Clark, PLoS One, 2014, 9). The low catalytic activity of the other plant materials is likely due to the very low concentrations of Pd present. Work to increase the concentration of Pd through a molecular biology route and also different methods of pre-concentration prior to stabilisation of the catalysts is continuing. In addition to testing as catalysts for C-C bond forming reactions the materials were also tested in a range of hydrogenation reactions. This was to determine if it was the choice of reaction that was poor rather than the materials themselves. Regrettably, here too the catalysts failed to show any activity. Results are shown for the Heck reaction except for Mustard where the Suzuki reaction was used. Plants were grown hydroponically unless otherwise stated. Unfortunately overall the use of the plant materials grown on synthetic ore medium, mine feed or gossan all showed disappointing catalytic activity in this work. The simplest explanation is that the concentration of palladium, or other catalytic metals are too low. Due to the low catalytic activity of the materials work was diverted in another direction, moving away from using the plants as conventional heterogeneous catalysts. Instead the plants were used to enhance the catalytic microwave processing of biomass to produce bio-gas, oil and char that can be used as a source of energy and chemicals. Microwave processing of biomass enhanced by catalysis The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence has considerable expertise in the area of using microwave technology for the production of chemicals and other value added products from biomass. It was hypothesised that the incorporation of metal nanoparticles, such as those seen from the Phytocat process, into biomass prior to microwave processing could enable control over final products (P. S. Shuttleworth, H. L. Parker, A. J. Hunt, V. L. Budarin, A. S. Matharu and J. H. Clark, Green Chem., 2014, 16, 573-584). The work begun with an investigation in the effect of palladium and nickel on the structural components of biomass - cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin - during microwaving and then continued on to use of the real biomass samples. The use of precious metal catalysts for bio-oil upgrading has been applied previously, however this is the first time that we can find that in situ use of palladium and nickel has been tested. Having the metals incorporated into the biomass ensures that the catalyst is distributed evenly throughout the biomass prior to pyrolysis. Study of microwave processing of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin was highly successful. The key results were for cellulose where the presence of Ni and Pd can be used to cleverly tune the resulting products of the bio-gas and bio-oil. The results from this work proved highly interesting, a key discovery was that the Ni impregnated materials appeared to undergo acid catalysis during the microwave processing. As a result the distribution of products achieved was entirely different compared to the Pd and non-impregnated samples. The Pd containing materials behaved similarly to the non-impregnated samples, with the difference that the bio-oils isolated from the Pd materials was much cleaner, consisting of fewer products at higher concentrations which would enable easier purification. There are also plans to publish this work as soon as possible. Further mechanistic investigations could be useful here to further understand what is taking place. Microwave processing of willow stems indicated that the presence of metals did influence the products produced, although the differences were not as significant as those seen with the pure cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin materials. It was indicated that it is the lignin portion of the willow that is being broken down during processing. Under microwave processing the willow behaved very differently, as is expected from using real biomass samples rather than chemically pure reagents. Only small quantities of bio-gas were recovered from the samples. The main products were bio-oil and char. For the willow grown on mine feed the results of processing indicate that the mixture of metals may be increasing the catalytic activity of the Pd and Ni, compared to the single metal willow stems. The bio-oils from both the Ni and Pd impregnated willow contained the chemicals most associated with lignin pyrolysis, e.g. phenolic and aromatic structures. This may indicate that it is this part of the plant that is being broken down. For the Ni willow the complexity of the bio-oils increased as the metal concentration increased, this was not observed for the Pd willow. Interestingly, the distribution of bio-oil products seen for the willow grown on mine feed resembled that of plants impregnated with much higher levels of Pd and Ni. This may indicate that there is a favourable co-metal effect, created by the other metals phytoextracted from the mine feed, occurring during pyrolysis. More work is required to fully understand the mechanism of what is occurring here. This work can create new opportunities for a willow biorefinery, where willow would be grown on land contaminated with metals (i.e. areas surrounding mining activities). The willow would uptake metal; it could then be harvested and undergo microwave processing to produce value added products. This work is still in early stages, but current results are promising. There is considerable potential to move forward with the Phytocat project. From a chemical perspective the results of the project indicate that future work should focus on the use of metal impregnated biomass for microwave processing. A lot still needs to be learnt about the effect of metal nanoparticles of real biomass samples. Further investigation could branch into different biomass species and different metal/mixed metal catalysts. Large scale testing and field trials are also required to fully test this idea for real world applications. WP4 Outcomes (Yale, USA) The objectives of WP4 were to assess the long term supply of platinum group elements, estimate the global platinum group elements in mine tailing and characterise platinum group metal flow cycles. Key Findings Global losses of Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru and Ir during their extraction, processing, use and recycling are not fully understood and this work provides estimates of these losses for the year 2010. It has been demonstrated that the concentration steps as well as the endoflife are the biggest contributors to metal losses. Notable differences across both life cycle stages and metals were observed. Due to the applications of Pd in the electronics industry where there is a relatively low amount of recycling, Pd losses are notably higher than those of Pt, whose applications are mainly closed-loop (jewellery and investment), at their endoflife stage. Overall losses across the metals range from approximately 25-40% on the supplyside and from 30-45% on the manufacturing, use and disposalside as a percentage of primary demand. As their name suggests, precious metal supplies are dwindling so it is important to minimize their losses at all stages. Substitution is an option although the extent to which substitution can prevent losses is not yet fully understood. This work examined potential substitutes for the platinum-group metals (PGMs) and highlight limits in each of their major commercial applications. It has been found that substitution is not always technically or economically viable. There are cases where substitutes are available but they do not improve the overall processes. For instance, when potential substitutes are other PGMs or rare metals, or if substitution has already occurred and further substitution may not be possible. Additionally, PGMs and their most promising potential substitutes are often co-produced from the same mineral deposits, leaving the substitutes exposed in the event of a supply disruption. It is clear that the substitution of PGM's in high volume applications is difficult and new technologies that avoid the use of PGMs are required in order to significantly decrease our reliance on them in the future. Finally, this project produced a life cycle analysis (LCA) on the production of PGM catalysts (palladium on carbon) and catalysts using the PHYTOCAT-based methodologies. This work demonstrated that the PHYTOCAT process holds promise for the production of catalysts and chemicals. WP5 Outcomes Management of the project successfully arranged annual meetings during the project and 6 month teleconferences between the partners. A website was developed to promote the activities of the project (www.phytocat.org). Dissemination activities include the publication of 5 publications and two book chapters from UK partners on the PHYTOCAT project. A further two book chapters and a paper was published by international collaborators. All objectives in the work packages were met in full. |
| Exploitation Route | The research is ongoing via a PhD studentship supported by the Malaysian government, and has directly contributed to funding of the following projects: 1. A BBSRC Networks in Biology and Biotechnology (NIBB) Proof of Concept Crossing Biological membranes Network (CBMNet) entitled "Plants and Nanoparticle producers". 2. A BBSRC NIBB Metals in Biology Proof of Concept project 'Tailoring in planta synthesis of specific nanoparticles for production of high-value catalysts' 3. BBSRC BB Metals in Biology Business Interaction Voucher (BIV): 'Investigating uptake and catalytic potential of miscanthus grown on palladium mine wastes' 4. BBSRC BB Metals in Biology BIV 'Platinum group metals in wastes from roadside verges'. In addition, the outputs from the project have led to new collaborations with four industrial partners, who are also keen to advance this biotechnology, ensuring that the findings are taken forward. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Education,Energy,Environment |
| URL | http://www.phytocat.org |
| Description | The research has progressed through several PhD studentships including one supported by the Malaysian government, one by a University of York award, and one independently funded. Projects consequential to the original award include: 1. A BBSRC Networks in Biology and Biotechnology (NIBB) Proof of Concept Crossing Biological membranes Network (CBMNet) entitled "Plants and Nanoparticle producers". 2. A BBSRC NIBB Metals in Biology Proof of Concept project 'Tailoring in planta synthesis of specific nanoparticles for production of high-value catalysts' 3. BBSRC BB Metals in Biology Business Interaction Voucher (BIV): 'Investigating uptake and catalytic potential of miscanthus grown on palladium mine wastes' 4. BBSRC BB Metals in Biology BIV 'Platinum group metals in wastes from roadside verges'. Members of the PHYTOCAT team have attended several international conferences and networking at these events has led directly to the development of funded collaborations with several industrial partners in the sectors of waste management, plant breeding and environment. One of these companies was a University of York spin-out now privately owned. In 2016 the New Zealand Government's Catalyst Fund supported the Phytocat collaboration with a grant of NZ$300,000.. The funding allowed Phytocat to explore the yield and value of functional chemicals that can be generated from nickel-rich biomass. These chemicals have tremendous relevance and application into Green Chemistry, a strategy that exploits waste to manufacture products with minimal effect on the environment. This research had its first major paper published in the RSC journal Green Chemsitry at the end of 2019. The Phytocat team is at the forefront of phytomining technology especially in the context of exploitation in green chemistry. Phytocat is redefining the value proposition of phytomining away from the actual metal, towards the products that this metal can catalyse within plants. Outreach activities to engage and inform the wider audience with these technologies included presentations to local societies and other events. The University of York also developed an elemental sustainability game that can be used by schools and the general public to educate on the sustainability of elements and the importance of recycling. . |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Chemicals,Education |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | British Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Amount | £64,068 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2015 |
| End | 10/2016 |
| Description | British Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Amount | £48,619 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2015 |
| End | 08/2016 |
| Description | Catalyst Fund |
| Amount | $291,945 (NZD) |
| Organisation | Government of New Zealand |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Start | 04/2016 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | ESASTAP Twinning activities |
| Amount | £6,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 09/2014 |
| End | 06/2015 |
| Description | Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia |
| Amount | £98,334 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Start | 04/2013 |
| End | 03/2016 |
| Description | Green Chemistry Building Opening |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to visitors (60+) at the opening of the new green chemistry centre at the University of York. This led onto a demonstration of PHYTOCAT technologies in the centre and further industrial engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | The Ancient Society of York Florists |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outreach activities to engage and inform the wider audience with these technologies included presentations to local societies (The Ancient Society of York Florists 'A Dip into Botanical Research' (June 2013) and development of relevant webpages (https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/liz-rylott/home/wider-audience). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/a/york.ac.uk/liz-rylott/home/wider-audience |