Microbial recycling of lithium-ion batteries: Challenges and outlook

Joseph Jegan Roy started his research career at the National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR–NIIST) in Trivandrum, India, and received his PhD from the University of Kerala, India. Currently, he is a senior researcher in the SCARCE program at the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His current research centers on recycling spent lithium-ion batteries through biological, direct recycling techniques and waste-for-waste strategies. In addition, he is exploring the possibility of reutilizing recovered materials in novel applications of new electrochemical energy storage. Norazean Zaiden is a graduate of the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE, NTU, Singapore). Her interest in applied microbiology leads to biofilm matrix development for bioremediation and resource recovery applications through synthetic biology. In addition, she continues her journey in SCELSE as a research fellow under an industry collaboration studying anti-biofouling agents' effects on biofilms. Minh Phuong Do is a research fellow (materials science) with years-long experience in lithium/sodium ion batteries at Energy Research Institute at NTU, Singapore. She received her PhD from NTU in 2020, specializing in electrochemistry. Phuong uses this expertise in developing and optimizing a safe and stable battery system. Her current research focus is on the green closed-loop hydrometallurgical process for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries using biomass and regeneration of high-quality battery materials. Bin Cao is an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a principal investigator at the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, NTU, Singapore. He received his PhD from the National University of Singapore and later worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research interest centers on biofilm-mediated microbial processes, with the goals of understanding environmental biofilm processes and applying the knowledge and insights to harness the power of beneficial biofilms and combat detrimental biofilms. Madhavi Srinivasan is a professor and executive director of the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and NTU Sustainability office. Her research focuses on synthesis, fabrication, and application of nanoscale materials/architectures in improving the performance of electrochemical energy storage devices such as advanced lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, sodium ion batteries, multivalent aqueous Zn/Al batteries and recycling of e-waste. She is the co-director of SCARCE (Singapore-CEA alliance for research in circular economy), a joint lab, in collaboration with French Alternative energies and atomic energy commission (CEA, France), focusing on recycling of e-waste.