NTU scientists turn old batteries into new ones with orange peel – Professor Madhavi Srinivasan & Assistant Professor Dalton Tay Chor Yong

We are pleased to share the research achievement of Professor Madhavi Srinivasan, Assistant Professor Dalton Tay Chor Yong and their team, which has been featured in various media including CNA’s Singapore Tonight. The links to various media reports are available at the bottom of the page.

Scientists led by NTU have developed a novel method of using fruit peel to turn old batteries into new ones. Terming it a “waste-to-resource approach”, the scientists say that this method tackles both food waste and electronic waste. Through lab experiments, the team found that their approach successfully extracted around 90 per cent of cobalt, lithium, nickel and manganese from spent lithium-ion batteries, which they said is a comparable efficacy to the approach using hydrogen peroxide. Assistant Professor Dalton Tay of the NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering and School of Biological Sciences said: “The key lies in the cellulose found in orange peel, which is converted into sugars under heat during the extraction process. These sugars enhance the recovery of metals from battery waste. Naturally occurring antioxidants found in orange peel, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, could have contributed to this enhancement as well.” Solid residues generated from this process were also found to be non-toxic, suggesting that this method is environmentally sound, he added.

The research article published in Environmental Science & Technology, with the title “Repurposing of Fruit Peel Waste as a Green Reductant for Recycling of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries”, can be found via this link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c02873


Asst Prof Dalton Tay (left) and Prof Madhavi Srinivasan developed a novel method of using fruit peel waste to extract and reuse precious metals from spent lithium-ion batteries in order to create new batteries. Photo: NTU

Our heartiest congratulations to Prof Srinivasan, Prof Tay and their team on their excellent achievement!

Media Coverage:
CNA (10pm), 13 Sep (Video)
TODAY, 26 Aug
Berita Harian, page 3
Channel 8 online, 26 Aug
Malay Mail, 26 Aug
Science Daily (US), 26 Aug
Tech Xplore
Science Codex
Industrial Equipment News
Engineering360
New Atlas (CA), 26 Aug
Il Denaro (IT), 26 Aug
Lianhe Zaobao, page 4
BeritaMediacorp online, 30 Aug
Sci Tech Daily (US), 29 Aug
Duurzaam Nieuws (NL)
eeDesignit
EQ International (IN), 28 Aug
Advanced Batteries & Energy Storage
ChemEurope (DK)
ICT Kommunikation (CH)
The Optimist Daily (US), 29 Aug
Tian Tian Kuai Bao, Tencent (CN), 28 Aug
Baidu (CN), 28 Aug
Unwire HK, 31 Aug
Tech News (TW), 31 Aug
Waste Advantage Magazine, 3 Sep
News release