| Title | Orange Peels Used to Extract Valuable Metals From Spent Batteries | |
| Date | Thursday September 03 2020, @09:39AM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the do-they-have-a-citrus-smell? dept. | ||
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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printed from SoylentNews, Orange Peels Used to Extract Valuable Metals From Spent Batteries on 2023-07-17 22:42:51