Accumulation of rare earth elements in common vine leaves is achieved through extraction from soil and transport in the xylem sap

Abstract

Rare Earth Elements play a critical role in current clean technologies but face scarcity and environmental challenges in their extraction. Using semi-natural controlled experiments, we tested the ability of V. vinifera L. to accumulate Rare Earth Elements naturally present in the soil. We demonstrate that V. vinifera L. passively transports all Rare Earth Elements from soil to leaves via Xylem-sap mirroring soil conditions. Since this process starts from the fifth month of V. vinifera L. growth without damaging the crops, we. estimate that it is possible to recover 900 milligrams of Rare Earth Elements per hectares from vineyard without harvesting the whole plant. We propose the direct extraction of Rare Earth Elements from leaves overcoming unstainable biomass burning yielding environmental and economic benefits.