Sabrina Marecos

This paper compares the performance of three microbes in dissolving ultramafic rock dunite, finding that Gluconobacter oxydans outperforms the others in acid production and metal extraction.

This paper demonstrates that Gluconobacter oxydans produces biolixiviants that significantly accelerate the leaching of cations from ultramafic minerals compared to chemical alternatives.

The paper screens a genome-scale knockout collection of Gluconobacter oxydans B58 to identify genes important for bioleaching neodymium, finding 89 genes, 68 novel to this process, and validating strain-specific effects on bioleaching efficiency.

This paper improves REE bioleaching by engineering Gluconobacter oxydans through genetic modifications that enhance acid production and metabolic efficiency.

The paper evaluates the economic feasibility of using electromicrobial production to generate lixiviants for CO2 mineralization, showing costs as low as $100 per tonne of CO2 sequestered.

The paper establishes an upper limit on the energy efficiency of electromicrobial protein production using a molecular-scale model.