LITHIUM RECOVERY OF SPENT LITHIUM-ION BATTERY USING BIOLEACHING FROM LOCAL SOURCES MICROORGANISM

Abstract

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is the most-used battery as a power source due to its high-energy density. Unfortunately, proliferating consumption of LIB incurs in the increasing number of spent LIB in the ecosystem which contains hazardous chemical substance especially lithium and cobalt. This phenomenon forces the extraction of lithium from spent LIB to grow accordingly, even more so as the demand for LIB for various electronic devices in Indonesia is still relatively expensive. Extraction method using bioleaching, which utilizes microorganism as leaching agent offers many attractive advantages. To name a few, bioleaching has higher efficiency, low operating cost and more effective for low concentration of lithium extraction as in spent batteries. This research aims to isolate local bacteria strains, which are able to extract lithium from spent LIB and to determine optimum condition for bioleaching by bacteria. Bacteria strains were isolated from lava tour area, Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta and tannery wastewater in Piyungan, Bantul. After incubation process, bacteria were mixed with spent LIB powder. Lithium recovery was determined by analyzing the filtrate after previously undergoing centrifugation by using ICP quantometer. The result of this experiment shows that bacteria strains isolated from Mount Merapi soil have optimum lithium recovery percentage amounting to 62.83% after 15 days, with soil/battery mass ratio of 100 g/100 g and operating condition as follows: pulp density: 2 mg/mL, initial pH: 7, temperature: 30 o C, stirring velocity: 120 rpm. Moreover, it was found that adaptation of bacteria with LiCl solution can increase leaching selectivity of bacteria towards Li. Bacteria strains isolated from Mount Merapi soil were found to exhibit the most potential to be developed as a bioleaching agent.