Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route
A low-energy paradigm was adopted for sustainable, affordable, and effective urban waste valorization. Here a new, eco-designed, solid-state fermentation process is presented to obtain some useful bio-products by recycling of different wastes. Urban food waste and scraps from trimmings were used as...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Microorganisms |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/9/5/895 |
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| author | Carlotta Alias Daniela Bulgari Fabjola Bilo Laura Borgese Alessandra Gianoncelli Giovanni Ribaudo Emanuela Gobbi Ivano Alessandri |
| author_facet | Carlotta Alias Daniela Bulgari Fabjola Bilo Laura Borgese Alessandra Gianoncelli Giovanni Ribaudo Emanuela Gobbi Ivano Alessandri |
| author_sort | Carlotta Alias |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A low-energy paradigm was adopted for sustainable, affordable, and effective urban waste valorization. Here a new, eco-designed, solid-state fermentation process is presented to obtain some useful bio-products by recycling of different wastes. Urban food waste and scraps from trimmings were used as a substrate for the production of citric acid (CA) by solid state fermentation of <i>Aspergillus niger</i> NRRL 334, with a yield of 20.50 mg of CA per gram of substrate. The acid solution was used to extract metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs), one of the most common electronic waste. The leaching activity of the biological solution is comparable to a commercial CA one. Sn and Fe were the most leached metals (404.09 and 67.99 mg/L, respectively), followed by Ni and Zn (4.55 and 1.92 mg/L) without any pre-treatments as usually performed. Commercial CA extracted Fe more efficiently than the organic one (123.46 vs. 67.99 mg/L); vice versa, biological organic CA recovered Ni better than commercial CA (4.55 vs. 1.54 mg/L). This is the first approach that allows the extraction of metals from WPCBs through CA produced by <i>A. niger</i> directly grown on waste material without any sugar supplement. This “green” process could be an alternative for the recovery of valuable metals such as Fe, Pb, and Ni from electronic waste. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:06:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fc2e8593e8d44a3998b5e08db4d7bf90 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-2607 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:06:16Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Microorganisms |
| spelling | doaj.art-fc2e8593e8d44a3998b5e08db4d7bf902023-11-21T16:38:00ZengMDPI AGMicroorganisms2076-26072021-04-019589510.3390/microorganisms9050895Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> RouteCarlotta Alias0Daniela Bulgari1Fabjola Bilo2Laura Borgese3Alessandra Gianoncelli4Giovanni Ribaudo5Emanuela Gobbi6Ivano Alessandri7B+LabNet-Environmental Sustainability Lab, University of Brescia, Via Branze 45, 25123 Brescia, ItalyAgri-Food and Environmental Microbiology Platform (PiMiAA), Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Via Branze 45, 25123 Brescia, ItalyChemistry for Technologies Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, ItalyChemistry for Technologies Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, ItalyPiattaforma di Proteomica, AgroFood Lab, Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, ItalyPiattaforma di Proteomica, AgroFood Lab, Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, ItalyAgri-Food and Environmental Microbiology Platform (PiMiAA), Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Via Branze 45, 25123 Brescia, ItalyDepartment of Information Engineering, University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, ItalyA low-energy paradigm was adopted for sustainable, affordable, and effective urban waste valorization. Here a new, eco-designed, solid-state fermentation process is presented to obtain some useful bio-products by recycling of different wastes. Urban food waste and scraps from trimmings were used as a substrate for the production of citric acid (CA) by solid state fermentation of <i>Aspergillus niger</i> NRRL 334, with a yield of 20.50 mg of CA per gram of substrate. The acid solution was used to extract metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs), one of the most common electronic waste. The leaching activity of the biological solution is comparable to a commercial CA one. Sn and Fe were the most leached metals (404.09 and 67.99 mg/L, respectively), followed by Ni and Zn (4.55 and 1.92 mg/L) without any pre-treatments as usually performed. Commercial CA extracted Fe more efficiently than the organic one (123.46 vs. 67.99 mg/L); vice versa, biological organic CA recovered Ni better than commercial CA (4.55 vs. 1.54 mg/L). This is the first approach that allows the extraction of metals from WPCBs through CA produced by <i>A. niger</i> directly grown on waste material without any sugar supplement. This “green” process could be an alternative for the recovery of valuable metals such as Fe, Pb, and Ni from electronic waste.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/9/5/895fungusacid solutionorganic wasteelectronic wastesolid state fermentationcircular economy |
| spellingShingle | Carlotta Alias Daniela Bulgari Fabjola Bilo Laura Borgese Alessandra Gianoncelli Giovanni Ribaudo Emanuela Gobbi Ivano Alessandri Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route Microorganisms fungus acid solution organic waste electronic waste solid state fermentation circular economy |
| title | Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route |
| title_full | Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route |
| title_fullStr | Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route |
| title_full_unstemmed | Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route |
| title_short | Food Waste-Assisted Metal Extraction from Printed Circuit Boards: The <i>Aspergillus niger</i> Route |
| title_sort | food waste assisted metal extraction from printed circuit boards the i aspergillus niger i route |
| topic | fungus acid solution organic waste electronic waste solid state fermentation circular economy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/9/5/895 |
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