Researchers from Coventry University's Centre for Sports, Exercise and Life Sciences have developed a new environmentally friendly solution for recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries by recovering all metals in them using a process called bioleaching. Bioleaching, also known as bio-mining, employs microbes to oxidize metals as part of their metabolism. The process has been widely used in the mining industry, where micro-organisms are used to extract valuable metals from ores. More recently, this technique has been used to clean up and recover materials from electronic waste, particularly the printed circuit boards of computers, solar panels, contaminated water and even uranium dumps. Prof. Sebastien Farnaud, along with colleagues in the university's Bioleaching Research Group, have found that bacteria, including Acidithiobacillus ferooxidans and other non-toxic species, can target and recover the individual metals in EV batteries, reducing the need for non-eco-friendly techniques that involve high temperatures or toxic chemicals.
|
|
More:
