"MicroBaux" - CNRS Interdisciplinary Project on the Clean Extraction of Iron from Bauxites Using Electroactive Bacteria
The extraction of aluminium from Bauxite requires a separation from other undesirable components such as iron by acid leaching and high temperature annealing, which leaves a non-exploited ‘red mud’ with both economic and environmental implications.
We propose here a method to extract the iron from the aluminium in a bauxite rock using the natural metabolic processes of electroactive bacteria. In previous publications, our consortium shows that when these bacteria, for instance those of the Geobacter genus, efficiently reduce iron from Fe(III) to Fe(II) under ambient conditions.
This project gathers the cross—discipline expertise from chemists at the Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes and geologists at Géosciences Rennes to characterize and quantify the changes in the mineral phases before and after the biological treatment.
James A. Behan
Chargé de Recherche/Assistant Professor CNRS
I am a Chargé de Recherche (Assistant Professor) based at the Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes, France. My research focuses on the areas of nanomaterial electrochemistry, bioelectrochemistry and interfacial science for energy applications. I previously worked as a Marie Curie fellow (Université de Rennes) and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for BioNano Interactions (CBNI) in the School of Chemistry, University College Dublin and as a postdoc and lecturer in Trinity College Dublin where I completed my PhD in physical chemistry with a focus on electrochemical and spectroscopic characterisation of nitrogenated carbon materials. I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at Trinity in 2014, when I graduated at the top of my class.