Project description:In recent years, the demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has been increasing rapidly. Conventional recycling strategies (based on pyro- and hydrometallurgy) are damaging for the environment and more sustainable methods need to be developed. Bioleaching is a promising environmentally friendly approach that uses microorganisms to solubilize metals. However, a bioleaching-based technology has not yet been applied to recover valuable metals from waste LIBs on an industrial scale. A series of experiments was performed to improve metal recovery rates from an active cathode material (LiCoO2; LCO). (i) Direct bioleaching of ≤0.5 % LCO with two prokaryotic acidophilic consortia achieved >80 % Co and 90 % Li extraction. Significantly lower metal recovery rates were obtained at 30 °C than at 45 °C. (ii) In contrast, during direct bioleaching of 3 % LCO with consortia adapted to elevated LCO levels, the 30 °C consortium performed significantly better than the 45 °C consortium, solubilizing 73 and 93 % of the Co and Li, respectively, during one-step bioleaching, and 83 and 99 % of the Co and Li, respectively, during a two-step process. (iii) The adapted 30°C consortium was used for indirect leaching in a low-waste closed-loop system (with 10 % LCO). The process involved generation of sulfuric acid in an acid-generating bioreactor (AGB), 2-3 week leaching of LCO with the biogenic acid (pH 0.9), selective precipitation of Co as hydroxide, and recirculation of the metal-free liquor back into the AGB. In total, 58.2 % Co and 100 % Li were solubilized in seven phases, and >99.9 % of the dissolved Co was recovered after each phase as a high-purity Co hydroxide. Additionally, Co nanoparticles were generated from the obtained Co-rich leachates, using Desulfovibrio alaskensis, and Co electrowinning was optimized as an alternative recovery technique, yielding high recovery rates (91.1 and 73.6% on carbon felt and roughened steel, respectively) from bioleachates that contained significantly lower Co concentrations than industrial hydrometallurgical liquors. The closed-loop system was highly dominated by the mixotrophic archaeon Ferroplasma and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus caldus and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. The developed system achieved high metal recovery rates and provided high-purity solid products suitable for a battery supply chain, while minimizing waste production and the inhibitory effects of elevated concentrations of dissolved metals on the leaching prokaryotes. The system is suitable for scale-up applications and has the potential to be adapted to different battery chemistries.

Project description:Lithium has been used for more than 50 years as the primary therapy for bipolar affective disorder (BPD) and is highly effective in its treatment. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the lithium’s therapeutic action still remains elusive. The goal of the proposed study is to identify genes involved in the lithium-responsive neurological pathway using the fruit fly as a model organism. Based on the fact that the fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms are well conserved between the fruit fly and vertebrates, the outcomes of this project are expected to lead to the recognition of uncharacterized players or processes responsible for the lithium action in the vertebrates, which would open up the future possibility to develop novel and improved therapies for BPD. The proposed gene-profiling experiment is designed to identify candidate genes and genetic pathways involved in the lithium-responsive biological process. Specific aims of this project are; 1) identify genes whose expression levels are significantly different between the wild type and Shu, 2) identify genes whose expression levels are enhanced or suppressed after lithium treatment, and 3) identify genes whose expression is differentially regulated in the wild type and Shu after lithium treatment. We expect that the genes identified through the proposed microarray analysis will provide important clues for elucidating the molecular and cellular processes responsible for the lithium action. A Drosophila mutant Shudderer (Shu) exhibits various neurological phenotypes, including hyperactivity, uncoordinated movements, and sporadically occurring jerks. Interestingly, many of these phenotypes are greatly suppressed by lithium with the internal concentrations used for treatment of human BPD patients. In addition, Shu mutant is more resistant to the toxic effects of lithium than the wild type strain. These data have led us to the hypothesis that the biological process responsive to lithium is affected in the Shu mutant. We expect that we will be able to identify genes and genetic pathways involved in the lithium-responsive process by comparing the gene expression profiles between the wild type and the Shu mutant with or without lithium treatment. Newly eclosed Canton-S (wild type) and Shu mutant females will be placed in vials containing fly food with or without 50mM LiCl. They will be cultured at 25oC with 65% humidity for 5 days. Three groups of fifty flies (150 flies in total) will be collected for each experimental condition (i.e., genotype and lithium treatment) and frozen on dry ice. The head will be separated and total RNA will be extracted from each group using the TRIzol Reagent (Life Technologies) followed by an RNeasy (Qiagen) cleanup step and a DNase I digestion step. The RNA will be resuspended in DEPC-treated water and the absorbance will be checked at 260 and 280 nm for determination of sample purity and concentration. The GeneChip Drosophila Genome 2.0 Arrays will be used to quantify the levels of transcripts in each sample. The total number of samples will be 4 (2 genotypes and 2 treatments) X 3 (triplicate) = 12. Keywords: dose response

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Closed-loop bioleaching of lithium-ion battery active material

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