Application of the surface engineered recombinant Escherichia coli to the industrial battery waste solution for lithium recovery

Abstract

Escherichia coli were engineered to selectively adsorb and recover lithium from the environment by employing bacterial cell surface display strategy. Lithium binding peptide LBP1 was integrated to the Escherichia coli membrane protein OmpC. The effect of environmental conditions on the adsorption of lithium by recombinant strain was evaluated, and lithium particles on cellular surface was analysed by FE-SEM and XRD. To elevate the lithium adsorption, dimeric, trimeric and tetrameric repeats of the LBP1 peptide was constructed and displayed on the surface of E. coli. The constructed recombinant E. coli displaying LBP1 trimer was applied to real industrial lithium battery wastewater to recover lithium.