On 11 November 2025, Professor Madhavi Srinivasan delivered her Inaugural Lecture as a WISE Guest Professor at Chalmers – a highly engaging presentation on how biotechnology can contribute to more sustainable battery technologies. She discussed everything from metal recovery using orange peels and microorganisms to the development of bio-based electrolytes and structural batteries.
Professor Madhavi Srinivasan, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore, has been appointed Wallenberg Initiative Material Science for Sustainability, WISE guest professor. She will be associated with Chalmers University of Technology and hosted by Professor Leif Asp at the Department of Industrial and Materials Science.
“This talk explores the emerging frontier of biotechnology in enabling greener battery technologies, specifically through biohydrometallurgy and bio-based materials, ” says Prof. Srinivasan Nanyang from the Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
Madhavi Srinivasan explained how her research group recovers metals from spent lithium-ion batteries using dried and ground orange peels combined with citric acid – a method that can replace both energy-intensive and chemically demanding processes.
Madhavi Srinivasan also showed how bio-based materials such as chitosan and cellulose nanofibrils can be used to develop electrolytes for water-based structural batteries, where the material both carries mechanical loads and stores energy. Her lecture offered a broad overview of how biotechnology can strengthen the circular economy and pave the way for new generations of sustainable energy-storage systems.
After the seminar, Madhavi Srinivasan met with colleagues at the Department of Industrial and Materials Science. This visit was short, but she will return to Chalmers in June next year as part of her WISE Guest Professorship within the Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability.
