University of St. Thomas Students Develop Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Process

Two juniors at the University of St. Thomas have taken it upon themselves to help their community recycle lithium-ion batteries properly.

Gabriel Riegert and Georges Macheta want to be sure that lithium-ion batteries in their community are going to the right area. After repairing some devices containing the problematic batteries the two looked for the best way to recycle them.

"When a customer would come in, they'd say their lithium-ion product didn't work. We would take it in, fix it for them right away. But the thing I noticed is that those lithium-ion batteries, where do they go?" asked Riegert.

"We figured out that most of them end up in landfills, and rivers, and they damage the environment. So, I brought it upon myself, 'Okay, Gabe, let's figure out the best way to recycle these batteries.' Where can they go so that we can be more sustainable, and the consumer can know where the batteries are really going?" 

The two developed a social venture named Converteca, where they created a process that requires taking apart the battery, draining the energy in brine solution, making it safe to cut into, then separating what’s inside the battery. Afterward, they dissolve the batteries and are left with a black mass.

"That black mass you can then turn into battery quality materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and then they can use that to further produce more batteries," Riegert said. 

Macheta and Riegert say that their method with Converteca achieves an industry-leading 98.3% reclamation rate.

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