An international team of researchers, including scientists from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, is investigating the potential for plants to extract nickel – an essential metal for lithium battery production – from soil.
The project has received a grant of €1.35m from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The research focuses on two plants from the mustard family known for their ability to absorb metal from the soil and incorporate it in their own tissues, which is known as phytomining. Nickel can then be harvested from the metal-rich plant biomass and subsequently used for industrial applications.
Nickel is a key component of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.
“Using plants, we can extract nickel from the soil without the severe environmental damage that traditional open-pit mining causes. Moreover, converting the bio-ore into nickel metal releases significantly less carbon dioxide,” said WUR researcher Antony van der Ent.
“Our research contributes to a sustainable future.”
In the project, mustard DNA is being analysed to identify genes that enhance nickel uptake and storage, and that influence growth and biomass production. This will support the development of plant cultivars with improved nickel accumulation and increased biomass, yielding larger quantities of harvested nickel.
The research team is also exploring methods to delay flowering, which means the plants could allocate more energy toward tissue growth. This would increase the nickel content in the plant. According to the researchers, phytomining could be a new, sustainable method of extracting important metals from soil.
In addition to researchers from WUR, the team includes scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Illinois State University, as well as the French company Botanickel.
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