Dr Anna Siekierka from Wrocław University of Science and Technology has won the Wrocław final of the international Falling Walls Lab competition. The winner prepared a presentation entitled ‘Energy from battery waste’. She will now present her project at the world final in Berlin.
Batteries and rechargeable batteries in their current form have revolutionised our lives, and the demand for portable energy storage is growing every year. Recycling them is not easy – the toxic elements (cobalt, nickel and magnanium) are difficult to separate and manage, and the amount of energy required to process used batteries and accumulators is considerable.
In her design, the winner proposes to use reverse electrodialysis equipped with an ultra-selective membrane dedicated to transporting only one selected cation (cobalt), while recovering energy. Such a solution reduces energy consumption, as well as providing it, while separating cobalt salts from nickel, manganese and lithium salts.
