The work by Kangqiang Ye (former undergraduate student of SMSE @ SJTU) and co-workers, entitled “An air/metal hydride battery for simultaneous neutralization treatment of acid-base wastewater and power generation”, recently appeared in Green Chemistry. The research article proposes and demonstrates a promising concept for addressing environmental challenges associated with waste acid and base. This work is done by associate professor Guo-Ming Weng’s team from Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hydrogen Science & Center of Hydrogen Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The abstract appears below.

“How to efficiently deal with waste acid and base produced by industry has constantly been a tough question for scientists and engineers. Such acid-base wastewaters are normally treated by mixing to give neutral products (i.e., water and salts) and heat which is hard to collect and reuse. Therefore, there is a need for innovative approaches with high efficiencies and high-value added products. Here we report an air/metal hydride battery with the function of both treating the acid-base wastewaters and gathering the waste heat energy in form of electricity. Remarkably, the proposed battery could exhibit a high Coulombic efficiency up to c.a. 94%, along with an effective reduction in acidity/alkalinity of waste acid/base and a decent amount of electricity. The proposed battery device also demonstrates a stable operation in semi-flow mode over a two-day timescale, showcasing its potential scalability and long-term stability. Moreover, life cycle assessment results indicate that electricity retrieved from the treatment process is a key contributor to reduce environmental impacts. This work offers alternative opportunities for accelerating the transition to a waste acid-base circular economy.”

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed “green” processing cycle of waste acid and base.

This work is supported by the 23rd Shanghai Jiao Tong University Undergraduate Innovative Practice Program (IPP23105), Shanghai Key Laboratory of Hydrogen Science & Center of Hydrogen Science of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the Shanghai High-Level Oversea Talents Award.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4GC01634C