Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Residues Application to Produce Biochar for the Anode of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Aspergillus niger is widely applied in the fermentation industry, which would produce abundant mycelium residues every year. As a kind of solid waste, mycelium residues seriously affected the environment. How to manage and utilize this solid waste is a problem for the fermentation industry. It was reported many kinds of biomass could be utilized to produce carbon materials, which would be further used to produce lithium-ion rechargeable batteries (LIBs). In this research, a process of porous biochar production from A. niger mycelium residues was investigated. Firstly, the effect of pretreatment with HCl/NaOH solution was evaluated, and then one-step carbonization was used to produce biochar after pretreatment. Secondly, the characters of produced porous biochar applied as the anode of the LIBs was assayed. Since the A. niger mycelium residues contain abundant nitrogen element (5.29%) from its chitosan-dominated cell wall, and silicon element (9.63%) from perlite filter aid, respectively. The biochar presented an excellent cycle stability and rate performance when applied as the anode of LIBs. The conclusion of this research shows the wide application prospect of fungal fermentation residues as carbon precursors in energy storage devices. Meanwhile, this investigation provides an alternative management method for A. niger mycelium residues, with which the mycelium residues could be effectively recycled to avoid resource waste and environmental pollution