Independent grading for biological critical-mineral recovery

Know whether the route holds before you commit.

Bioseq evaluates a proposed biological recovery route against a defined industrial stream and returns an evidence-backed verdict on whether the route is ready for concept use, requires validation, or should be excluded.

Current scope
Algal recovery routes · aqueous secondary and dilute streams
Nd · Pr · Dy · Tb · Co · Ni · Li · Mn
Routes outside this scope are declined, not estimated. Why the scope is bounded →
The distinction

Research tells you what worked. Bioseq tells you whether you can use it.

Bioseq examines the evidence against the chemistry and conditions that decide whether it holds: reproducibility, operating envelope, competing ions, selectivity, process integration and downstream separation. Every conclusion remains traceable to its evidence.

A biological interaction demonstrated in a paper is not yet an industrial route.

What the assessment returns

One stream. One route. One grade.

The assessment grades the route across six dimensions. Five are findings. One governs what may be done with them.

Evidence

What has actually been demonstrated — and how independently.

Compatibility

Whether the route operates inside the conditions of the proposed stream.

Selectivity

Whether target recovery survives competition from the rest of the chemistry.

Integration

What the biological step adds to the existing process.

Governing verdict
Design Use Status

What the evidence legitimately permits the route to be used for.

Validation gap

What has to be tested before the status can improve.

Where the evidence cannot support a conclusion, the assessment returns not assessed — data gap. That is a result, not an omission.

The non-override

The verdict cannot be overridden.

Bioseq separates evidence from enthusiasm. The governing verdict is the Design Use Status: what the evidence legitimately permits the route to be used for. It is derived from the evidence record and cannot be promoted by the platform, the operator or the assessor.

Concept mass balance

Use directly. State the source in the design basis.

Use with caveat

Concept-stage use only, flagged explicitly, with the validation requirement recorded.

Validation required

Carry as a candidate. Do not put it in a mass balance.

Exclude — not measured

Not admissible in a design document. Recorded as a data gap and carried into the validation plan.

Evidence the instrument runs

One assessment, graded honestly.

Cobalt and rare-earth recovery from a cold, sulfate-rich acid mine drainage stream. Screening grade, for concept-stage route selection only.

Process Data Sheet · Representative example
Co & REE recovery from acid mine drainage — algal polishing route screen
BSQ-PDS-2026-0042
GRADE SCREENING
METHODOLOGY v4.1
Route call

For this 12 °C freshwater stream, the acid-stable mesophilic green alga is the priority candidate — despite lower per-gram uptake than both alternatives. The highest-uptake and highest-REE strains are each outranked here by operating-envelope fit.

Candidate strain
Reported uptake
Envelope
Evidence · design use status
Cladophora / Ulothrix-typeBSQ-STR-39480 · green · mesophilicPRIORITY CANDIDATE
Co12.8 mg/g
pH 2.5–6.0
8–30 °C ✓
analogous validation required
Ulva lactucaBSQ-STR-2765 · green · marine
Co18.4 mg/g
pH 2.0–5.5
15–35 °C △
replicated concept mass balance
Galdieria phlegreaBSQ-STR-2882 · red · thermoacidophile
Nd22.1 mg/g
pH 0.5–3.5
40–55 °C ✗
direct (Nd) mechanism does not apply (Co)
Data gap

Phase association for this stream is undetermined. It gates design use of the recovery step and is carried into the validation plan as a priority experiment.

Screening grade · for concept-stage route selection only · not a techno-economic assessment. Strain values illustrative.
Request the full sheet →

The priority candidate is not the organism with the strongest headline result. Ulva has the highest cobalt uptake and is a marine species asked to work in freshwater. Galdieria has the highest rare-earth uptake and functions at 40–55 °C; the stream is 12 °C. The candidate that survives the actual conditions carries analogous evidence only, so it is shortlisted for validation — not admitted to design.

Bioseq does not mine, process, or produce. Bioseq has no route to sell. The assessment answers to the evidence, not to a supplier's order book.
The first release

What the first release is designed to prove.

The first release is designed to prove one thing: that fragmented scientific evidence can be converted into a consistent, traceable and conservative industrial verdict.

Breadth is not the test. The first release works within a bounded and comparatively well-documented class of biological recovery — algal routes against aqueous secondary and dilute streams — so that the grading logic can be tested deeply and challenged properly. If the grading does not hold here, it does not hold anywhere.

It is designed to show that Bioseq can:

The test set is selected for difficulty: weak replication, conflicting conditions, inadequate selectivity, failed evidence transfer and routes that appear promising until process integration is considered. An instrument that returns mostly positive results against a test set like this has failed.

The standard

A scientist should be able to inspect the source evidence, challenge the reasoning, identify the limiting factor and locate precisely where and why they disagree.

The first release is a test of the integrity of the instrument, not a survey of biological recovery.

Who it is for

Built for decisions before commitment.

Innovation programmes and investors

Assess claims consistently across projects using the same evidential standard.

Processors and EPCs

Determine whether a biological route belongs in route selection.

Operators

Determine which candidates justify validation.

Bring us the route and the stream.

We will tell you how much of the claim holds.

martin@bioseq.io
Bioseq Ltd · registered in England and Wales · company number 17294821