Rare earth elements (REE) have great demand for sustainable energy and the high-end technology sector. The high similarity of REE owing to the nature of their electronic configurations increases the difficulty and costs of the development of chemical processes for their separation and recovery. In this way, the development of green technologies is highly relevant for replacing conventional unit operations of extractive metallurgy, viz. precipitation, liquid-liquid and solid-liquid extraction, and ion-exchange. Biosorption is a physicochemical and metabolically-independent biological process based on a variety of mechanisms including absorption, adsorption, ion-exchange, surface complexation and precipitation that represents a biotechnological cost-effective innovative way for the recovery of REE from aqueous solutions. This mini-review provides an overview and current scenario of biosorption technologies existing to recover REE, seeking to address the possibilities of using a green technology approach for wastewater treatment, as well as for the recovery of these high valued elements in the REE production chain.

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生物吸附作为稀土元素回收和分离的绿色技术

稀土元素（REE）对可持续能源和高端技术领域有着巨大的需求。由于其电子配置的性质，REE 的高度相似性增加了开发用于其分离和回收的化学过程的难度和成本。通过这种方式，绿色技术的发展与取代传统的采掘冶金单元操作密切相关，即。沉淀、液-液和固-液萃取、离子交换。生物吸附是一种基于多种机制的物理化学和代谢独立的生物过程，包括吸收、吸附、离子交换、表面络合和沉淀，代表了一种从水溶液中回收 REE 的生物技术经济高效的创新方法。