Researchers find way to recycle electric car batteries with chocolate

Chocolate, the answer to just about all of life's problems

After eating spinach, in addition to a lot of green remains on your gums, you may suffer from rough teeth. This appears to be due to a substance called oxalic acid. You can also find this substance in rhubarb, for example, but according to the Bernhoven hospital in Brabant, there is also a lot of oxalic acid in cocoa and chocolate. The stuff appears to help recycle batteries from electric cars.

Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden conducted research to find out whether there are less harmful ways to recycle batteries. The current recycling process releases a lot of CO2 and requires a lot of energy. In addition, the recovered lithium can often no longer be used because it is mixed with manganese and aluminum.

Almost the entire battery can be recycled

Unfortunately, the batteries aren't covered in chocolate and then magically become reusable. But at the right temperature, duration and concentration of oxalic acid, the researchers managed to recycle 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium. The loss of materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese should also be less.

“Our method is a promising new route for battery recycling,” says one of the researchers. The Swedish team believes that further research into this new route is warranted. “If the method is scaled up, we hope it can be used in industry in a few years,” said another member of the team. Chocolate farmers and car builders, you know what to do.

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