{"id":210172,"date":"2025-03-31T14:04:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/taking-the-forever-out-of-forever-chemicals-scientists-work-out-how-to-destroy-the-pfas-in-batteries"},"modified":"2025-03-31T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T19:04:59","slug":"taking-the-forever-out-of-forever-chemicals-scientists-work-out-how-to-destroy-the-pfas-in-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/taking-the-forever-out-of-forever-chemicals-scientists-work-out-how-to-destroy-the-pfas-in-batteries","title":{"rendered":"Taking the \u2018forever\u2019 out of \u2018forever chemicals\u2019: Scientists work out how to destroy the PFAS in batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CSIRO Battery shredder pilot\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1006075268?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"640\" height=\"200\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lithium-ion batteries are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cei.washington.edu\/research\/energy-storage\/lithium-ion-battery\/\" target=\"_blank\">part of everyday life<\/a>. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store excess renewable energy for later use, supporting the clean energy transition.<\/p>\n<p>Australia produces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0959652619301970\" target=\"_blank\">more than 3,000 metric tons<\/a> of lithium-ion battery <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/waste\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">waste<\/a> a year. Managing this waste is a technical, economic and social challenge. Opportunities exist for <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/recycling\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">recycling<\/a> and creating a circular economy for batteries. But they come with risk.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/lithium-ion+batteries\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">lithium-ion batteries<\/a> contain manufactured chemicals such as PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The chemicals carry the lithium\u2014along with electricity\u2014through the battery. If released into the environment, they can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abg9065\" target=\"_blank\">linger for decades and likely longer<\/a>. This is why they\u2019ve been dubbed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-023-02444-5\" target=\"_blank\">forever chemicals<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store excess renewable energy for later use, supporting the clean energy transition. Australia produces more than 3,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery waste a year. Managing this waste is a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1523,39,1512,17,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-computing","category-economics","category-mobile-phones","category-sustainability","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}