Basic Research on the Utilization of Marine Resources of Rare Metals and Ocean Energy

Securing resources and their long-term application are important to achieve sustainable development of human beings. This is particularly true of Japan, a country with few resources in its land. Thus, these issue are quite important: precise evaluation of potential amount of marine resources; their effective use based on the clarification of enrichment processes of metal resources; and formation processes of ocean energy such as methane hydrate.

In the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, the Graduate School of Science, many faculty members are studying (i) seafloor mineral resources such as manganese deposits and hydrothermal ores and (ii) oceanic energy, including methane hydrate, in step with several related governmental programs as examplified in the topics below:
- Evaluation of marine metal resources based on the enrichment process of rare metals.
- Microbial methane cycle studies based on earth biological method.
- Evaluation of potential methane hydrate resources using various isotope signatures.
- Recovery of rare metals using bacteria and DNA-related materials This program aims to develop basic researches related to sustainable use of rare metals and oceanic energy.

- Akihiro Kano (Professor, Graduate School of Science)
- Yohei Suzuki (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science)
- Michinari Sunamura (Research Associate, Graduate School of Science)
- Akira Usui (Kochi University)

- A. Kano, R. Miyahara, K. Yanagawa, T. Mori, S. Owari, H. Tomaru, Y. Kakizaki, G. Snyder, T. Shimono, Y. Kakuwa, and R. Matsumoto, Gas hydrate estimates in muddy sediments from the oxygen isotope of water fraction. Chem. Geol., in press.
- M. Kouduka, A. S. Tanabe, S. Yamamoto, K. Yanagawa, Y. Nakamura, F. Akiba, H. Tomaru, H. Toju, and Y. Suzuki, Eukaryotic diversity in late Pleistocene marine sediments around a shallow methane hydrate deposit in the Japan Sea. Geobiology, in press.
- S. Mitsunobu, M. Zhu, Y. Takeichi, T. Ohigashi, H. Suga, M. Jinno, H. Makita, M. Sakata, K. Ono, K. Mase, and Y. Takahashi, Direct detection of Fe(II) in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) at the mineral-microbe nterface in bacterial pyrite leaching, Microbes Environ., 31 (2016) 63-69.
- J. Fujimoto, K. Tanaka, N. Watanabe, and Y. Takahashi, Simultaneous recovery and separation of rare earth elements in ferromanganese nodules by using Shewanella putrefaciens, Hydrometallurgy 166 (2016) 80-86.
- S. Furuyama, A. Kano, Y. Kunimitsu, T. Ishikawa, and W. Wang, Diagenetic overprint to a negative carbon isotope anomaly associated with the Gaskiers glaciation of the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation in South China. Precambrian Res., 276 (2016) 110-122.
- C. Sugihara, K. Yanagawa, T. Okumura, C Takashima, A. Harijoko, and A. Kano, Transition of microbiological and sedimentological features associated with the geochemical gradient in a travertine mound in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Sediment. Geol., 343 (2016) 85-98.
- K. Yanagawa, A. Tani, A. Hachikubo, A. Kano, and Y. Suzuki, Biogeochemical Cycle of Methanol in Anoxic Deep-Sea Sediments. Microbes and Environments, 31 (2016) 190-193.
- T. Kashiwabara, Y. Oishi, A. Sakaguchi, T. Sugiyama, A. Usui, and Y. Takahashi, Chemical processes for the extreme enrichment of tellurium into marine ferromanganese oxides, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 131 (2014) 150-163.
- Y. Takahashi, K. Kondo, A. Miyaji, Y. Watanabe, Q. H. Fan, T. Honma, and K. Tanaka, Recovery and separation of rare earth elements using salmon milt, PLoS One, 9 (2014) e114858.
- K. Yanagawa, M. Kouduka, Y. Nakamura, A. Hachikubo, H. Tomaru, and Y. Suzuki, Distinct microbial communities thriving in gas hydrate-associated sediments from the eastern Japan Sea. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 90 (2014) 243-249.
- Y. Takahashi, A. Manceau, N. Geoffroy, M. A. Marcus, and A. Usui, Chemical and structural control of the partitioning of Co, Ce, and Pb in marine ferromanganese oxides, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 71 (2007) 984-1008.