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Orange Peels Used to Extract Valuable Metals From Spent Batteries

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday September 03 2020, @09:39AM   
from the do-they-have-a-citrus-smell? dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Orange peels used to extract valuable metals from spent batteries:

Just because a lithium-ion battery no longer holds a charge doesn't mean it no longer holds any value. It still contains useful metals, which can now be reclaimed via a more eco-friendly technique – the key ingredient is orange peel waste.

[...] With that limitation in mind, scientists at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University tried using orange peels instead of the usual acids and hydrogen peroxide. More specifically, they utilized oven-dried orange peels that had been ground into a powder, combined with citric acid obtained from citrus fruit.

Doing so, the researchers were able to extract about 90 percent of the lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese from spent lithium-ion batteries. This level of efficiency is roughly what had been achieved previously. Importantly, though, when using the orange peels, the residue was found to be non-toxic.

[...] The researchers used the reclaimed metals in new lithium-ion batteries, that have a charge capacity similar to that of commercially available models. Further testing is now being conducted, to see if the new batteries last for a comparable number of charge/discharge cycles.

A paper on the research, which is being co-led by Prof. Madhavi Srinivasan, was recently published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Journal Reference:
Zhuoran Wu, Tanto Soh, Jun Jie Chan, Shize Meng, Daniel Meyer, Madhavi Srinivasan, and Chor Yong Tay. Repurposing of Fruit Peel Waste as a Green Reductant for Recycling of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries . Environmental Science & Technology 2020 54 (15), 9681-9692 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02873

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Original Submission

• Instead of using acids, they're using... acids Instead of using acids, they're using... acids (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @11:34AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @11:34AM (#1045808)

  But this time the chemicals are natural! Which totally makes it non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Except for the cobalt, of course. Which is also natural! But, you know, not as cuddly as orange peels.

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• Re:Instead of using acids, they're using... acids (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @12:12PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2020, @12:12PM (#1045823)

  The orange peels aren't the acid they add (it's citric acid that they add additionally). The orange peel seems to work like a sort of catalist.

  As for the citric acid and toxicity. A dose of a chemical determines if it's toxic or not. This dose could be low or high. I assume they normally use strong acids (like hydrochloric acid) for this purpose, which need to be diluted before disposal (or processed in a different way). Weak acids, like the citric acid here, don't need that. I wonder if they tested this method with other weak acids, for example acetic acid.

  Parent