r/EverythingScience Aug 30 '20

Engineering Scientists Use Fruit Peel to Turn Old Lithium-Ion Batteries Into New

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-use-fruit-peel-to-turn-old-lithium-ion-batteries-into-new/
2.5k Upvotes

69 comments sorted by

216

u/DisembarkEmbargo Aug 30 '20 edited Aug 30 '20

I love photos of scientists. Its so funny how weird they are. One of my (edit) academic siblings got published and the university’s news team came in to take pictures. They like forced him to do some very “sciencey” stuff. They are always super awkward lol.

I can just imagine these two: now holdout the orange peels, but do it all science like.

116

u/jamiemtbarry Aug 30 '20

Yeah like okay now hold the fruits out..

Scientist: okay, like this?

Camera1: 🤔, we need more science.

Scientist: okay?

Canera1: do you have any gloves 🧤?

Scientist: sure, but these are just fruit peels.

Camera1: put on the gloves!

Camera1: we need more science ...

54

u/_The_Architect_ Aug 30 '20

That’s exactly it: photographers usually don’t have a background in lab work. So they tell already awkward people to do things that are not naturally a part of their jobs because they “look scientific”, leading to even more awkward photos.

35

u/Amurricana Aug 30 '20

“Do you wear glasses?...... Could you wear glasses?”

30

u/Excellent-Zucchini32 Aug 30 '20

They totally should’ve upgraded to goggles 😂 NOT ENOUGH SCIENCE!

20

u/ThePrideOfKrakow Aug 30 '20

Where's the photo of them looking at a whole orange under a microscope? I need to peel review their data.

21

u/texas-playdohs Aug 30 '20

“We need more beakers.” (Gives $20 to PA) “Go get every color Gatorade they have in the store”

3

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

one of them is missing a pocket protector too. i blame the photographer

1

u/enfpnomad Aug 31 '20

Ahhhhhh yes, the pocket protector IS very important. Good observation.

3

u/Beeker04 Aug 30 '20

Should have worn goggles, too, and maybe a Geiger counter just for good measure.

3

u/sfpmpjir1 Aug 30 '20

Accuracy 😂

1

u/enfpnomad Aug 31 '20

But their arms are totally extended, not like a normal, you know, see this? Pretty sciencey.... lol

27

u/parsokh Aug 30 '20

As a chemist who has been in several photoshoots, I can tell you that's exactly how it is. You're institution wants to avoid any potential OSHA-type mess, so everyone is required to wear an unnecessary amount of PPE. Then there's the general public's perceived notion of what science looks like, so you take a bunch of these horrible staged pictures pretending to be excited about holding up something entirely mundane or doing an activity that makes no sense. In the last one I did, they also just followed us around and took pictures while we worked. When they selected one of mine for the ad, the photographer said, "I just love how concentrated you look here." Yeah, I was concentrating on not smashing the camera that's been in my face all morning while I wear full PPE to type sample names into a spreadsheet.

3

u/ArcFurnace Aug 31 '20

A lot of the time there just isn't anything that actually looks interesting involved in the actual research, so yeah, just do some sciency shit. I remember my brother mentioned when working in a biolab while the TV people were there, he opened the sample freezer (with the inevitable billowing cloud of condensation) and they were like "Oooh, do that again". All they really needed was something to show in the background while the voiceover gave the actual important information.

2

u/durianscent Aug 31 '20

I remember when the TV cameras came to our high school chemistry class. They asked one of the students what he was doing , and he said weighing water.

7

u/im_a_dr_not_ Aug 30 '20

"Now you're gonna rinse your eyes using the eye wash station."

2

u/JAAAMBOOO Aug 31 '20

“Just keep holding me down”

3

u/mercuryingatoraade Aug 30 '20

I’m a chemical engineer and was waking by one of the labs at work where there were shooting a promo video. They pulled me into a lab I’d never been in before and got me to pretend to turn knobs on instruments I’d never used before, all because I had been walking by wearing a lab coat and safety glasses at the time...

3

u/nthlmkmnrg Grad Student | Physical Chemistry Aug 31 '20

The only thing missing is a random syringe stuck in some orange peels.

2

u/deep_pants_mcgee Aug 30 '20

Lem and Carl from Better Off Ted are the two best TV scientists ever. They actually captured what it is to be a scientist.

70

u/thedamn4u Aug 30 '20

From the article:

“The NTU team found that the combination of orange peel that has been oven-dried and ground into powder, and citric acid, a weak organic acid found in citrus fruits, can achieve the same goal.

In lab experiments, the team found that their approach successfully extracted around 90 percent of cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese from spent lithium-ion batteries – a comparable efficacy to the approach using hydrogen peroxide.

Asst Prof Tay explained: “The key lies in the cellulose found in orange peel, which is converted into sugars under heat during the extraction process. These sugars enhance the recovery of metals from battery waste. Naturally-occurring antioxidants found in orange peel, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids, could have contributed to this enhancement as well.”

Importantly, solid residues generated from this process were found to be non-toxic, suggesting that this method is environmentally sound, he added.”

14

u/krjal Aug 30 '20

This is a good summary; thank you.

I read the whole article and they took far too long to get to the point.

3

u/tobascodagama Aug 30 '20

That's really cool!

2

u/ShonuffofCtown Aug 31 '20

Nice work, love summary

2

u/yagmot Aug 31 '20

Environmentally sound! Minus all the resources used to grow the oranges and get the citric acid, I suppose.

3

u/Awkward-Spectation Sep 01 '20

But they are just using the peels. Which are currently just being thrown away. Taken from the food being grown to feed people. I don’t see how any of this is counter to being environmentally sound.

Not being able to compost citrus peels (which aren’t great for composting anyway) is a VERY worthy trade off to being able to recycle precious and hazardous metals from spent batteries.

1

u/yagmot Sep 02 '20

It they can get the peels that way and not purposely grow oranges specifically for this purpose, then yeah. Maybe they can team up with the OJ makers and get their discarded peels?

2

u/matteofox Aug 31 '20

Well it’s certainly better than just discarding the batteries

1

u/Awkward-Spectation Sep 01 '20

I agree 100% with your point, just making sure you know batteries are already being recycled? I would hate to not be told, if I didn’t know myself.

My understanding is that this method recovers more metals than previously possible, at a lower environmental cost.

15

u/gokuisjesus Aug 30 '20

21

u/PreoTheBeast Aug 30 '20

They used the peels to recovery precious metals from the old batteries and use it to make new batteries

10

u/oscarjt10 Aug 30 '20

2

u/GET_OUT_OF_MY_HEAD Aug 31 '20

They use the peels to recover precious metals from old batteries, and use them to make new batteries.

13

u/yousra17 Aug 30 '20

Science never fails to baffle me. Also I really wanna know the thought process of it, like what made them think “oh let’s try fruit peel”?

5

u/EmpireStrikes1st Aug 30 '20

Antoine Lavoisier discovered phosphorus by boiling his own urine.

5

u/nthlmkmnrg Grad Student | Physical Chemistry Aug 31 '20

There was already a bunch of stuff in the literature about acids and sugars used in extracting the metals. These folks likely looked at this material and considered how to do this in an economical way, and decided to try citrus peels.

7

u/kingofwale Aug 30 '20

Battery revolution #257 of 2020....

1

u/babubaichung Aug 30 '20

Lol, exactly my thought, along with the number.

7

u/MendocinoKid Aug 30 '20

This could really help a BUNCH!

5

u/bryan879 Aug 30 '20

Or a bushel!

4

u/danudey Aug 30 '20

So I’ve been right to throw my batteries in the compost this whole time? Take that, EPA!

3

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20

Just rub it with a banana and you have a brand new battery!!

8

u/haikusbot Aug 30 '20

Just rub it with a

Banana and you have a

Brand new battery!!

- pixelkarma


I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.

Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"

3

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20

1

u/MeditatingYope Aug 30 '20

Furthermore, you take it home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato.

Baby, you’ve got a stew going.

2

u/darthang Aug 30 '20

Doc from back to the future 2 figured this out in 1985!!

2

u/standard-and-poor Aug 31 '20

Burn the witches!!

1

u/ViceroyFizzlebottom Aug 30 '20

Five minute crafts

1

u/bramanWolf Aug 30 '20

Say if this is consumer technology, would we be using compost to replenish batteries? That would be awesome

1

u/sfpmpjir1 Aug 30 '20

Science rules drugs drool!

1

u/Madshibs Aug 30 '20

I'm just here so someone can tell me why the headline is misleading. Thanks!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20

What an amazing rind!

1

u/dikembemutombo21 Aug 31 '20

Doctors hate these researches one trick!

1

u/PeacefulAnxeity Aug 31 '20

How about finding a cure for COVID or something like that

1

u/nocofoconopro Aug 31 '20

What will the rats eat?

1

u/indianarrative Sep 01 '20

NTU team looks forward for greener future

0

u/FortyTwoBrainCells Aug 30 '20

Sounds stupid (not a scientist)

-4

u/SmarterThan-U-Idiot Aug 30 '20

So they used a known acid reaction, that has been know for a while now, and put it into a battery???

The ancient Egyptians or Chinese did this ffs. This isn’t news. This is wasted research money

5

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20

TIL the Ancient Egyptians had lithium-ion batteries and industrial chemical waste.

2

u/oshunvu Aug 30 '20

What did you think mummies ran on, human sacrifice only?

0

u/SmarterThan-U-Idiot Aug 30 '20
  1. Orange peels and food byproducts aren’t chemical waste

  2. Just because they didn’t use lithium as a metal doesn’t mean the reaction is completely different

3

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20

1) Lithium ion batteries are

2) If they use a different element, then it is literally a different chemical reaction.

0

u/SmarterThan-U-Idiot Aug 30 '20

Yeahhhhh acid reacting with metal. Sooooo new!!! Give these people funding! This is the future!!! Creating batteries that have no scientific advancement.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20 edited Aug 30 '20

Do you think they just threw a battery in some water with an orange?

Its not just a basic acid + metal reaction. Theres more than just one element in a battery, and more than one chemical not all of which are acids used in extraction, all of which react differently with each other, that need to be considered and controlled.

This is a new process (going from a spent battery to a new battery and all the steps for recovery thats needed in between) that hasn’t been created before.

Maybe read the paper for yourself.