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Spent lithium-ion battery black mass secondary resource

A heterogeneous powder stream produced by pretreatment of spent lithium-ion batteries. Composition depends on battery chemistry and processing; the curated experiment used nickel-manganese-cobalt battery material after discharging, dismantling, thermal treatment, crushing and sorting. This secondary resource is distinct from whole batteries, an individual cathode compound, cobalt or lithium elements, and recovered battery-grade products. Constituent-element criticality is not inherited by this mixed feed.

Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)

Adapted acidophile consortium leaching of NMC battery black mass

bioleaching Microbial

A living acidophilic enrichment from Lake Hromnice sediment mobilized metals from a pretreated NMC battery black mass. Culture-associated acidification and iron cycling accompanied release; the experiment does not separate acid chemistry from a direct cellular contribution or establish which community member caused the effect. Adaptation to dissolved-metal mixtures improved several measured leachate outcomes.

Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Laboratory flasks contained 50 mL FeS medium with 50 mM ferrous sulfate, 1% w/v elemental sulfur and initial pH 2.0, inoculated at 10% v/v. Seven days of preculture preceded addition of 1% w/v black mass, followed by seven days at 30 degrees C and 150 rpm. The tested powder had d10, d50 and d90 of 4.4, 17.2 and 55.0 micrometres; thermal pretreatment temperature and time were not specified. Original FeS enrichment was dominated by Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, with Alicyclobacillus also detected; the post-adaptation community was not established. No pure strain or causal organism identifier is assigned. Adaptation consisted of three 14-day exposures to synthetic mixtures of Li, Co, Ni, Mn and Cu salts. Abiotic sterile FeS medium and non-adapted culture were tested alongside adapted culture. Figure captions report n=3 and standard deviations. This is laboratory solubilization, not industrial operation.
Curated Evidence Points:
Sections 2.5-2.6 and 3.3, Figures 4-6: adapted cultures produced higher day-two leachate concentrations of the monitored metals except Cu than non-adapted cultures and abiotic controls, according to the reported comparisons. Concentrations generally peaked by day two. ICP-OES measured filtered, acid-treated leachate and day-zero metal backgrounds were subtracted; this establishes mobilization rather than isolation of pure products. Section 2.5 describes 0.45-micrometre filtration, while Section 2.6 specifies a 0.2-micrometre analytical sample filter; the precise relationship of these preparation steps is not explicit.
Figure 4 shows different pH and iron speciation in sterile and inoculated arms, preventing attribution of the difference uniquely to direct cell contact. Iron-mediated reduction, sulfur oxidation and copper catalysis are proposed explanations, not separately demonstrated molecular pathways. Table 2 adaptation doses do not consistently equal Table 1 composition multiplied by the stated black-mass equivalents. Figure 5 adapted-Co concentrations near 2 g/L also exceed the 1.45 g/L inventory implied by Table 1's 145 g Co/kg and the stated 1% w/v feed loading. These unresolved source quantities prevent acceptance of a closed mass balance or the abstract's complete-recovery claim; no corrected yield is inferred.

Sources & References

  1. lalropuia2024: Lalropuia et al. (2024). Metal recovery from spent lithium-ion batteries via two-step bioleaching using adapted chemolithotrophs from an acidic mine pit lake. Frontiers in Microbiology 15:1347072. DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1347072; Sections 2.1-2.7 and 3.1-3.3, Tables 1-2 and Figures 4-6.
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1347072 (accessed 2026-10-11)

Curation History

Timestamp Curator Action Summary
2026-10-11T09:02:35.257931+00:00 Codex (GPT-6; Codex) CREATE Created mixed battery black-mass identity and qualified acidophile leaching evidence, preserving source mass-balance and matched-control limitations.

Record source: data/records/battery-black-mass.yaml