VATIS UPDATE Article

According to the researchers at the University of South Florida, the United States, it may be essential to establish an eco-friendly recycling process to extract cobalt and lithium from tons of waste batteries. The unusual project has seen the research team dismantle the batteries and pulverise the cathodes before exposing the remaining pulp to the fungus. ‘Fungi naturally generate organic acids, and the acids work to leach out the metals,’ explained Jeffrey Cunningham, who supervised the work.

Results to date show that up to 85% of the lithium and up to 48% of the cobalt can be extracted using the fungi’s oxalic and citric acids. The strains of fungi used in the project are Aspergillus niger, Penicillium simplicissimum and Penicillium chrysogenum. After ‘fungal exposure’, the metals remain in a liquid acidic medium, says Cunningham. The research team is trying to figure out the best way to retrieve the two elements from the liquid.