UNS – As technology develops, Lithium batteries are increasingly used. This battery is often used to fill the energy of practical and popular devices such as laptops, power banks, and cellphones.
It is important to know that lithium battery is hardly recycled. Therefore, one of the lecturers of the Chemical Engineering department in Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Agus Purwanto, reminded not to throw any Lithium batteries. He suggests that the batteries should be returned to the factory if it was damaged or unused anymore.
“If you dispose of the battery, do not throw it away carelessly. Just collect it first. There should be a recycling institution or it can be returned to the manufacturer so that it can be managed,” he said.
Agus added that lithium batteries can explode when being exposed to heat from the sun. This battery is susceptible to thermal runaway, an extraordinary process of increasing temperature until it reaches the melting point of Lithium if the battery temperature reaches a certain temperature (130 degrees Celsius).
As what happen to Li-Ion batteries, other primary batteries such as wall clock batteries also must not be carelessly removed. It is because hazardous toxic substances contained in the battery can be released into nature so that it can pollute the nature.
So far, Agus said, there is no regulation about Li-ion batteries recycling. Nevertheless, there are already a number of academicians who are researching how to recycle the battery.
“If lithium battery can be sold again, Li-Ion batteries can be recycled too. But, in Indonesia there is no Li-Ion recycling project yet,” Agus explained. humas-red.uns/Tni/Dty