Evaluation of myco-leaching potential of valuable metals from spent lithium battery byPenicillium chrysogenumandAspergillus niger

Bioleaching is an environmentally friendly approach to recycle metals from electronic wastes with high efficiency. This study aimed to evaluate the bioleaching of electronic waste by Penicillium chrysogenum and Aspergillus niger. After collecting the used batteries and preparing the battery powder, the elemental analysis was performed on the battery powder using XRD and XRF experiments. The optimisation results showed that P. chrysogenum and A. niger were able to leach 73.31% and 54.6% of the lithium in the battery powder at the best condition, respectively. A comparison of the performance of the two fungi showed that A. niger showed better bioleaching performance, and P. chrysogenum had higher bioaccumulation performance. The results of organic acid production showed the most acid produced by P. chrysogenum and A. niger was gluconic acid, which was produced as 186.5 and 126.6 mM, respectively, in the non-battery environment. The results showed that the presence of battery powder increased gluconic acid concentration in medium containing P. chrysogenum by 24 mM and A. niger by 142 mM. The results show that using bioleaching by fungi due to environmental cleanup, metal uptake, and production of higher amounts of organic acid can be a good strategy for the bioremediation of electronic components.