ABSTRACT

Used phone batteries have precious metals that can be extracted again. Waste treatment can be done
by bioleaching method. Spent Li-ion batteries (LIB) are highly rich in Cobalt and Lithium that need to
be recovered to reduce shortage of these valuable metals and decrease of their potential environmental
risks. This study aims to determine the ability of microorganisms isolated from the gold are processing
area of Tanggamus, Lampung. This extraction is carried out to determine the recovery results from
lithium and cobalt in used cell phone batteries. The medium used for bacterial growth was 9K medium.
Bioleaching was carried out using 1% pulp density in one step for 7 and 14 days. The component taken
from a used phone battery is the cathode. After extraction, the samples will be analyzed using ICP-OES,
XRD and XRF. The results of bioleaching analysis using ICP-OES obtained lithium for 7 days of 175.61
mg/L and 177.95 mg/L for 14 days. The concentration of cobalt bioleaching increased with
concentrations at 7 days of 7537 mg/L and 14 days of 12771.16 mg/L. The results of XRD and XRF
analysis showed a decrease in cobalt in the residual yield. It can be concluded that the isolation of
microorganisms from the Tanggamus gold ore processing area can extract lithium and cobalt from used
batteries. The recovery of lithium was 84.62% and cobalt 36.56% from bioleaching of used batteries by
microorganism isolates from the Tanggamus gold ore processing area. Finally, results of this study
suggest that microorganism isolated bioleaching could be an environmental friendly approach for
solubilisation and recovery of considerable quantity of metals from spent Li-ion batteries.

Keywords: Bioleaching, Spent Li-ion batteries (LIB), Lithium, Cobalt, Metal recovery, Microorganism
isolated