Resource Recovery

Sustainable Resource Recovery from Waste Materials

With the rise of electric vehicles, there is a significant increase in the disposal of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), posing environmental and economic concerns for the LIBs industry. Although traditional methods like hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy have successfully extracted metals from spent LIBs, uncertainties persist regarding their environmental and energy impacts. Based on the fundamental understanding of environmental chemistry and new approaches, our group has developed novel pathways to sustainably extract metals from spent waste materials, such as black powder and mixed metals in spent LIBs. In addition, we are studying the sustainable upcycling methods of the extracted metals into valuable materials.

Seongryeong Kim, Kyoung Lee, Kihyun Kim, Seung Soo S. Lee, John D. Fortner, Hyosang An, Yeonguk Son, Hoyoung Hwang, Yosep Han, Yoon Myung, Haesung Jung, "Reductive dissolution of NCM cathode through anaerobic respiration by Shewanella putrefaciens", Environmental Science & Technology, 2024, accepted.