Spent zinc-manganese button-cell batteries secondary resource
End-of-life zinc-manganese button cells, represented by mixed powder from discarded watch batteries. This secondary resource is distinct from NiMH and lithium-ion batteries, silver-oxide button cells, pure electrode phases and the constituent elements. The selected study identifies its mixed feed as Zn-Mn button cells but does not independently document the chemistry of every collected cell. No constituent-element criticality is inherited.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Culture-associated zinc and manganese mobilization after thermal pretreatment
bioleaching
Microbial
An adapted iron-oxidizing culture, reported as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, was associated with zinc and manganese solubilization from thermally pretreated spent button-cell powder. Live-culture treatment gave higher source-reported extraction than the tested spent-medium and chemical-ferric treatments, which had different solution histories. This is a laboratory combined thermal and biological treatment, not demonstrated isolated-metal recovery or industrial deployment. The reported PTCC 1664 strain identifier remains unverified; no organism CURIE is assigned to this uncertain experimental stock.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Almost 1 kg of spent button cells of different sizes and manufacturers was collected from watch stores in Tehran, Iran. The cells were manually dismantled and their powder dried at 100 degrees C, crushed, mixed and sieved through a reported number-200 mesh to a stated size below 70 micrometres. These two size descriptions are retained without treating the mesh designation as an independently measured particle distribution. Furnace pretreatment used 200 or 600 degrees C for four hours; the furnace atmosphere was not specified, although the separate TGA used air. The paper reports culture purchase from IROST as PTCC 1664 without sequence authentication. Serial adaptation tested 1-25 g/L of the 600-degree-treated powder. The one-step experiment added 20 g/L powder to 90 mL of the paper's 9K medium containing 44.48 g/L FeSO4.7H2O, adjusted the initial pH to 2 with sulfuric acid, and inoculated with 10% v/v adapted culture. Incubation was 30 degrees C, 140 rpm and 21 days. The spent-medium arm used culture grown for five days, then centrifuged at 12000 g for fifteen minutes at 4 degrees C before adding 20 g/L powder; absence of residual viable cells was not demonstrated. Its ferric concentration is described as 6 g/L in Methods and about 6.7 g/L in Results. The chemical arm used 24.39 g/L ferric sulfate, reported as 6.83 g/L ferric iron, in distilled water at the same powder loading, temperature, shaking and duration. These comparators did not match the medium composition or evolving acid and iron chemistry, and no matched sterile 9K trajectory was reported. Experiments were stated to be triplicate with means reported, but plotted error bars were not defined. Five-mL aliquots were centrifuged at 3000 g for two minutes and filtered with unspecified pore size before elemental analysis. Evaporation was compensated with water; a complete sampling and metal-inventory correction was not documented. The source alternates ICP-OES and ICP-MS labels for the Vista-pro analysis, leaving the instrumental description inconsistent.
Almost 1 kg of spent button cells of different sizes and manufacturers was collected from watch stores in Tehran, Iran. The cells were manually dismantled and their powder dried at 100 degrees C, crushed, mixed and sieved through a reported number-200 mesh to a stated size below 70 micrometres. These two size descriptions are retained without treating the mesh designation as an independently measured particle distribution. Furnace pretreatment used 200 or 600 degrees C for four hours; the furnace atmosphere was not specified, although the separate TGA used air. The paper reports culture purchase from IROST as PTCC 1664 without sequence authentication. Serial adaptation tested 1-25 g/L of the 600-degree-treated powder. The one-step experiment added 20 g/L powder to 90 mL of the paper's 9K medium containing 44.48 g/L FeSO4.7H2O, adjusted the initial pH to 2 with sulfuric acid, and inoculated with 10% v/v adapted culture. Incubation was 30 degrees C, 140 rpm and 21 days. The spent-medium arm used culture grown for five days, then centrifuged at 12000 g for fifteen minutes at 4 degrees C before adding 20 g/L powder; absence of residual viable cells was not demonstrated. Its ferric concentration is described as 6 g/L in Methods and about 6.7 g/L in Results. The chemical arm used 24.39 g/L ferric sulfate, reported as 6.83 g/L ferric iron, in distilled water at the same powder loading, temperature, shaking and duration. These comparators did not match the medium composition or evolving acid and iron chemistry, and no matched sterile 9K trajectory was reported. Experiments were stated to be triplicate with means reported, but plotted error bars were not defined. Five-mL aliquots were centrifuged at 3000 g for two minutes and filtered with unspecified pore size before elemental analysis. Evaporation was compensated with water; a complete sampling and metal-inventory correction was not documented. The source alternates ICP-OES and ICP-MS labels for the Vista-pro analysis, leaving the instrumental description inconsistent.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
pourhossein_2022
Results 2-3 and Figures 3(d), 4(a) and 5 report 95% Zn and 91% Mn extraction with adapted culture and 600-degree-treated powder at 20 g/L after 21 days. These are the authors' aqueous extraction percentages relative to their treated-feed assay, not independently recalculated whole-battery or isolated-product yields. The unheated powder comparison reports only 21% Zn and 16% Mn extraction. Figure 3(b-c) shows declining cell counts and little iron oxidation with untreated and 200-degree-treated powder at 1 g/L, in contrast to the 600-degree-treated feed. These are separate loading assays, not interchangeable controls for the 20 g/L extraction endpoint.
Partial
Source:
pourhossein_2022
Figure 4 shows lower extraction in spent-medium and chemical-ferric arms, but their unlike pH and iron trajectories do not isolate a cell-specific dissolution mechanism. Results give chemical extraction of 65% Zn and 55% Mn; the Mn bar in Figure 4(a) is visually nearer 60%. The abstract's pretreatment improvement percentages and the conclusion's 33% Zn and 31% Mn improvement statements do not transparently reconcile with the reported endpoints. These numerical inconsistencies remain unresolved; no derived improvement or significance estimate is adopted.
Refute
Source:
pourhossein_2022
Results 2 and Figure 3(a-c) contradict a claim that the culture grows readily on all powder treatments or loadings: untreated and 200-degree-treated feeds inhibited the reported culture at 1 g/L, and growth was not obtained at 25 g/L of the 600-degree-treated powder. This limits the selected process, not all microorganisms or all button-cell compositions. Carbon toxicity, altered proteins and membrane damage are proposed explanations without direct causal tests.
Table 1 and Figures 1-2 establish a mixed, compositionally altered experimental feed rather than a pure Zn-Mn mineral. A sentence in Results reverses the original Zn/Mn percentages relative to Table 1; no absolute feed inventory is imported. Figure 6 supports a residual solid interpreted as jarosite-bearing with remaining ZnMn2O4, not a purified recovered metal product. Proposed EPS action, siderophore activity and direct Mn-reductase respiration were not specifically assayed. Several printed reaction equations have charge or atom balance problems, so they are not curated as demonstrated pathways. Neither complete removal of toxicity nor a closed thermal/leaching mass balance was established by these measurements.
Sources & References
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pourhossein_2022: Pourhossein, Sadeghi and Mousavi (2022). Thermal pretreatment of spent button cell batteries (BCBs) for efficient bioleaching. Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering 39:2444-2454. DOI 10.1007/s11814-022-1160-x; Methods 1-8, Results 1-4, Table 1 and Figures 1-6.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-022-1160-x (accessed 2026-10-11) -
pourhossein_2022_publisher_pdf: KIChE publisher PDF of Pourhossein et al. (2022), eleven pages, 2444-2454; full text, Table 1 and all six figures inspected.
https://www.kiche.or.kr/journal/kjche/fulltext/39/9/2444/47643892 (accessed 2026-10-11)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-11T14:55:59.780709+00:00 |
Codex (GPT-6; Codex) | CREATE | Curated laboratory button-cell powder leaching from complete primary evidence, retaining uncertain culture identity, inhibited treatments, unlike controls, source contradictions and unverified whole-feed recovery. |
Record source: data/records/spent-zinc-manganese-button-cell-batteries.yaml