A group of researchers led by NTU has actually established an unique approach of utilizing fruit peel waste to extract and reuse rare-earth elements from invested lithium-ion batteries in order to produce brand-new batteries. L-R: Asst Prof Dalton Tay, Prof Madhavi Srinivasan. Credit: NTU Singapore
Scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have actually established an unique approach of utilizing fruit peel waste to extract and reuse rare-earth elements from invested lithium-ion batteries in order to produce brand-new batteries.
The group showed their idea utilizing orange peel, which recuperated rare-earth elements from battery waste effectively. They then made practical batteries from these recuperated metals, developing very little waste while doing so.
The researchers state that their waste-to-resource method deals with both food waste and electronic devices waste, supporting the advancement of a circular economy with absolutely no waste, in which resources are kept in usage for as long as possible. An approximated 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste and 50 million tonnes of e-waste are produced internationally each year.
Spent batteries are traditionally treated with severe heat (over 500°C) to smelt important metals, which gives off dangerous harmful gases. Alternative approaches that usage strong acid services or weaker acid services with hydrogen peroxide to draw out the metals are being checked out, however they still produce secondary toxins that posture health and wellness dangers, or depend on hydrogen peroxide which is dangerous and unsteady.
The group showed their idea utilizing orange peel, which recuperated rare-earth elements from battery waste effectively. They then made practical batteries from these recuperated metals, developing very little non-toxic waste while doing so. Credit: NTU Singapore
Professor Madhavi Srinivasan, co-director of the NTU Singapore-CEA Alliance for Research in Circular Economy (NTU SCARCE) laboratory, stated: “Current commercial recycling procedures of e-waste are energy-intensive and give off damaging toxins and liquid waste, indicating an immediate requirement for environmentally friendly techniques as the quantity of e-waste grows. Our group has actually shown that it is possible to do so with eco-friendly compounds.
“These findings construct on our existing body of work at LIMITED under NTU’s Energy Research Institute ([email protected]). The SCARCE laboratory was established to establish greener methods of recycling e-waste. It is likewise part of the NTU Smart Campus effort, which intends to establish highly sophisticated services for a sustainable future.”
Assistant Professor Dalton Tay of the NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Biological Sciences stated: “In Singapore, a resource-scarce country, this process of urban mining to extract valuable metals from all kinds of discarded electronics becomes very important. With this method, we not only tackle the problem of resource depletion by keeping these precious metals in use as much as possible, but also the problem of e-waste and food waste accumulation – both a growing global crisis.”
The findings were released in the clinical journal Environmental Science & Technology in July.
An affordable, sustainable method
With commercial methods to recycling battery waste creating damaging toxins, hydrometallurgy – utilizing water as a solvent for extraction – is significantly being checked out as a possible option. This procedure includes very first shredding and squashing utilized batteries to form a crushed product called black mass. Researchers then extract important metals from black mass by liquifying it in a mix of strong acids or weak acids plus other chemicals like hydrogen peroxide under heat, prior to letting the metals speed up.
While reasonably more environmentally friendly than standard techniques, using such strong chemicals on a commercial scale might produce a considerable quantity of secondary toxins, presenting considerable security and health dangers, stated Asst Prof Tay.
A waste-to-resource method to recycling batteries. Credit: NTU Singapore
The NTU group discovered that the mix of orange peel that has actually been oven-dried and ground into powder, and citric acid, a weak natural acid discovered in citrus fruits, can accomplish the exact same objective.
In laboratory experiments, the group discovered that their method effectively drawn out around 90 percent of cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese from invested lithium-ion batteries – a similar effectiveness to the method utilizing hydrogen peroxide.
Asst Prof Tay discussed: “The key lies in the cellulose found in orange peel, which is converted into sugars under heat during the extraction process. These sugars enhance the recovery of metals from battery waste. Naturally-occurring antioxidants found in orange peel, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, could have contributed to this enhancement as well.”
Importantly, strong residues produced from this procedure were discovered to be non-toxic, recommending that this approach is ecologically sound, he included.
From the retrieved products, they then put together brand-new lithium-ion batteries, which revealed a comparable charge capability to business ones. Further research study is underway to enhance the charge-discharge biking efficiency of these brand-new batteries made from recuperated products.
This recommends that this brand-new innovation is “practically feasible for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries in the industrial sense,” stated the scientists.
The group is now wanting to additional enhance the efficiency of their batteries produced from dealt with battery waste. They are likewise enhancing the conditions to scale up production and checking out the possibility of eliminating using acids while doing so.
Prof Madhavi, who is likewise from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering and [email protected], stated: “This waste-to-resource approach could also potentially be extended to other types of cellulose-rich fruit and vegetable waste, as well as lithium-ion battery types such as lithium iron phosphate and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide. This would help to make great strides towards the new circular economy of e-waste, and power our lives in a greener and more sustainable manner.”
Reference: “Repurposing of Fruit Peel Waste as a Green Reductant for Recycling of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries” by Zhuoran Wu, Tanto Soh, Jun Jie Chan, Shize Meng, Daniel Meyer, Madhavi Srinivasan and Chor Yong Tay, 9 July 2020, Environmental Science & Technology.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02873
The research study, which comes under NTU SCARCE, is supported by the National Research Foundation, the Ministry of National Development, and the National Environment Agency under the Closing the Waste Loop R&D Initiative as part of the Urban Solutions & Sustainability−Integration Fund.
