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Microbes offer cleaner way to extract lithium from expired batteries
Aspergillus luchuensis, a freshwater microorganism used to recover lithium from spent batteries / Courtesy of the National Institute of Biological Resources
By Lee Kyung-min
As the global transition to electric vehicles fuels an unprecedented demand for critical minerals, Korean government researchers have developed an eco-friendly method that uses freshwater microorganisms to recover more than 90 percent of the lithium locked inside spent batteries.
The Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources, under the Ministry of Environment, said Monday that it successfully isolated a fungal strain capable of extracting valuable metals from "black powder" — the crushed, metal-rich byproduct of recycled lithium-ion batteries.
The breakthrough centers on Aspergillus luchuensis, a microbe traditionally used in brewing traditional distilled spirits. In laboratory trials conducted at 80 degrees Celsius over 24 hours, the cultural fluid of the specific strain extracted up to 90.3 percent of the lithium from lithium cobalt oxide black powder, which is commonly found in consumer electronics. This represents an efficiency bump of 9 percent to 23 percent compared to conventional sulfuric acid treatments.
Furthermore, when applied to NMC811 black powder — a high-energy-density material used widely in electric vehicles — organic acids derived from the microbe achieved a lithium recovery rate of 92.4 percent, vastly outperforming the 56.3 percent efficiency seen with traditional chemical processing.
Korea relies almost entirely on imports for core battery materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt. With the rapid expansion of electric vehicles and energy storage systems, local securing of these supply chains via recycling has become an economic priority.
Traditionally, commercial battery recycling hinges on harsh hydrometallurgical processes that deploy massive amounts of sulfuric acid, posing substantial environmental hazards. The new microbial technique replaces these corrosive agents with naturally synthesized organic acids like citric and oxalic acids, offering a path toward sustainable urban mining.
The institute plans to register a patent for the technology this month. To ensure commercial viability, researchers are simultaneously developing a secondary method that uses the isolated organic acids directly, allowing industrial recycling facilities to deploy the technology without needing to invest in complex microbial cultivation systems.
"This patented technology reduces the use of toxic chemicals while boosting the commercial value of recycled lithium, which will help stabilize the critical mineral supply chain," said Jeong Yu-jin, head of the institute’s utilization technology development division. "We will continue our follow-up research to ensure this technology transitions smoothly from the lab to commercial industrial operations."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.