Bio-extraction of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium batteries using magnetotactic bacteria and its role in electronic waste management

ABSTRACT

This study presents the bio-extraction and mineralization properties of 5 different Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) to extract valuable metals from spent Li-ion and Ni-Cd batteries. The powdered spent batteries were incorporated for particle size, FTIR, XRD, and XRF analysis. Further, MTB (1 × 10⁷CFUs/ml) was treated individually with the powdered battery sample, and the bioabsorption results showcased the successful removal of lead (98%), nickel (90%), cadmium (97%), zinc (100%), and lead/cadmium (33%) from MSR1, RJS2, RJS5, RJS6, and RJS7, respectively. In addition, the MAG1 consortium treatment effectively removed cadmium (98.5%) and lead (60%). Also, the MAG2 consortium treatment removed cadmium (100%), followed by copper (67%). Similarly, MTB treated with Ni-Cd battery showed the strains RJS5 and MSR1 removed 60% and 66% of cadmium; furthermore, RJS2 and RJS6 removed 72% and 71.4% nickel, respectively. Finally, the RJS7 strain removed 100% lead and 75% cadmium. However, the Ni-Cd battery treated with MAG1 showed effective removal of 67.07% copper and 65% cadmium. Similarly, the MAG2 consortium removed 87% lead and 71% cadmium. The final SEM-EDX and XRF analysis on the Li-ion batteries showed that the RJS2 and RJS5 strains removed zinc and lead effectively. Also, the RJS5 and RJS7 strains treated with the Ni-Cd battery showed better removal of lead and manganese, respectively. This is the first report on the Magnetotactic bacteria to be used for the bio-extraction of valuable metals from spent battery waste.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• magnetotactic bacteria
• Li-ion battery
• Ni-Cd battery
• bio extraction
• biomineralization

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the management of Vellore Institute of Technology for providing FTIR, XRD, particle size analyser, and Technology Business Incubator-VIT to facilitate AAS. We also thank CSIR- Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi for carrying out XRF and SEM analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contribution:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Validation, Investigation and Writing- Reviewing and Editing the final draft were performed by Sumana Sannigrahi, Gargi Sarkar and Dr. K. Suthindhiran. Methodology and Formal analysis were performed by Sumana Sannigrahi and Gargi Sarkar. Writing the Original draft and Data curation were done by Sumana Sannigrahi. Resources, Supervision, Project Administration and Funding Acquisition were done by Dr. K. Suthindhiran.

Data availability statement

Data will be made available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/27658511.2024.2345431

Additional information

Funding

The work was funded by the Department of Science and Technology- Science and Engineering Research Board (DST-SERB) - No. SR/FT/LS-11/2012 and Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-No. BT/PR10570/PFN/20/839/2013.