Newspapers highlighted on August 13th 2025, the revolutionary discovery by researchers at the University of Brescia could reshape how we think about both battery recycling and carbon dioxide utilization. Published on the cover of Green Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry), the study presents a new, sustainable approach to converting waste from end-of-life lithium batteries into energy-rich gases—methane and carbon monoxide—using only sunlight.
The news was also published by ANSA.
At the heart of this breakthrough is a newly identified material called Bat-Mal (Battery-derived Malate), discovered almost by accident during the development of a novel battery recycling technique. This serendipitous finding emerged after a sample of “black mass” (a mixture of materials extracted from spent batteries) was left in cold storage for longer than planned. A strange pink-purple solid formed, drawing immediate interest from the research team.
Artificial Intelligence played a critical role in analyzing the unknown substance and predicting its potential catalytic properties. Further testing—led by the University of Catania’s Industrial and Environmental Catalysis Lab—confirmed that Bat-Mal could indeed function as a solar-powered catalyst, converting CO₂ into methane and CO at temperatures of around 120°C in a small reactor.
This discovery is part of the broader CARAMEL project, which is developing an energy-efficient, acid-free method to recover over 90% of lithium from used batteries. Compared to traditional methods, this new process cuts energy consumption by more than 50% and avoids the use of harsh inorganic acids.
The next steps? Optimizing Bat-Mal’s performance for continuous operation and scaling the system to industrial processes that emit large amounts of CO₂. This could pave the way for integrated solutions that capture emissions and transform them into valuable fuels—without adding more CO₂ to the atmosphere.
In essence, the team is getting closer to mimicking photosynthesis—not by making sugars like plants do, but by producing small fuel molecules using sunlight and atmospheric CO₂. As research continues, there’s hope that future iterations might even yield more complex compounds, potentially leading to solar-driven synthetic fuels.
https://www.9colonne.it/549266/batterie-cotte-br-e-la-c02-diventa-energia