Industrial production of sulfuric acid requires a high amount of energy and in remote regions such as mineral extraction pits, in situ production becomes unfeasible. This work proposes an alternative for the production of H₂SO₄ that uses sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms. The production capacity of this acid in a mesophilic (30 °C) and a thermophilic (65 °C) condition was studied by three collected consortia from acid mine drainage and compared with Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. It was found that At. thiooxidans presented higher sulfuric acid production than the consortia collected and, therefore, it was selected for the bioleaching of rare earths elements (REEs) from phosphogypsum (PG). Due to the acid consumption of phosphogypsum, the two-step bioleaching condition resulted in higher REEs extraction (98% Nd, 60% Ce, 58% La, and 62% Y) when compared to one-step bioleaching (28% Nd, 17% Ce, 18% La, and 30% Y). The process was performed on a reactor scale and it was possible to extract 55.0% of the REEs contained in 300 g of waste and concentrate them into 0.922 g of rare earth oxalates, with a final yield of 52.5%, showing that the proposed bioprocess has potential application even in remote areas due to its low energy consumption when compared to traditional processes.

硫酸的工业生产需要大量能源，并且在诸如矿物开采坑等偏远地区，就地生产变得不可行。这项工作提出了一种使用硫氧化微生物生产 H ₂ SO _{4的替代方案}。该酸在中温（30°C）和嗜热（65°C）条件下的生产能力由三个从酸性矿山排水中收集的联合体研究，并与氧化硫硫杆菌进行比较。发现在. 氧化硫与收集的联合体相比，硫酸产量更高，因此，它被选择用于从磷石膏 (PG) 中生物浸出稀土元素 (REE)。由于磷石膏的酸消耗，与一步生物浸出（28% Nd、17 % Ce、18% La 和 30% Y)。该工艺在反应堆规模上进行，可以提取 300 g 废物中 55.0% 的 REE，并将其浓缩成 0.922 g 稀土草酸盐，最终收率为 52.5%，表明所提出的生物工艺具有与传统工艺相比，由于其能耗低，因此即使在偏远地区也有潜在应用。