Electric vehicles are far more sustainable for our planet overall than traditional gas-powered cars. But their least sustainable aspect at present is their lithium-ion batteries. Now, scientists in England may have found a way to recycle these batteries more efficiently, Interesting Engineering reported.
The Horsfall Group, a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh, is working on a method of using bacteria to extract lithium, cobalt, manganese, and other nonrenewable but essential minerals from spent batteries.
While battery-electric vehicles produce no planet-overheating air pollution while in use (unlike gas-powered cars), they do require rare metals to make the batteries work. The mining of those metals causes environmental degradation and water overuse, which means that for the industry to become truly sustainable, it must figure out better ways to recapture and reuse the metals in existing batteries.
That is exactly what the Horsfall Group aims to do with its new method.
"To get around these problems we need to develop a circular economy where we reuse these minerals wherever possible, otherwise we will run out of materials very quickly," Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at Edinburgh University, told the Guardian. "There is only a finite amount of these metals on Earth and we can no longer afford to throw them away as waste as we do now. We need new recycling technologies if we want to do something about global warming."
The Horsfall Group isn't the only team of scientists working on this problem. Another team at Rice University in Texas recently used flash heating to develop its own method for recapturing the rare metals. Other scientists around the world are also working on ways to recycle EV batteries, as the field is still in its early stages.
While these groups may be competing with one another, all of their progress is a win for our planet.
"Our disruptive innovations will lead to the development of unique and sustainable new products, derived from wastes and by-products, and demonstrating their cost-efficient and energy-saving production using novel biomanufacturing technologies," the Horsfall Group website said.
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