South African Researcher Wins Eni Award for Battery Work
Gosego Sedikelo's research on recovering materials from used lithium-ion batteries is still at the research stage, with no deployment timeline reported.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Chemistry
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Gosego Sedikelo, a PhD researcher at the University of South Africa (Unisa), won the 2026 Eni Award in the Young Talents from Africa category, presented by Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on 29 October 2026. The award recognizes research in energy and environmental sustainability; the research itself is at the research stage, not a deployed technology.
Why it matters
Demand for cleaner energy technologies has made disposal and recycling of used batteries an increasingly important concern. Sedikelo's work on recovering critical materials from spent lithium-ion batteries sits on that trajectory, and the award signals recognition of early-career African research in this area.
The award is one of only two Young Talents from Africa recognitions made each year across the continent, and it is the 18th edition of the Eni Award. The source does not report technical performance figures, recovery yields, or benchmark comparisons for Sedikelo's battery-material method, and what is still unresolved is how the process performs at scale.
The players
Gosego Sedikelo
PhD researcher at the University of South Africa's Institute for Catalysis and Energy Solutions, working on recovering critical materials from spent lithium-ion batteries.
Sergio Mattarella
President of Italy, who presented the 2026 Eni Award to Sedikelo at the Quirinal Palace.
Nosakhare Jeremiah Aigbedion
Researcher at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation in Kenya, who shared the 2026 Young Talents from Africa recognition.
The details
Sedikelo's research focuses on extracting critical materials from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, the rechargeable cells used in electric vehicles and consumer electronics, so the valuable materials inside can be recovered and reused rather than discarded. The work is carried out at the Institute for Catalysis and Energy Solutions within Unisa's College of Science, Engineering and Technology, under the supervision of Professor Yali Yao.
Timeline
29 October 2026: Sedikelo receives the award from Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome.
6 November 2026: Article reporting the award is published.
The Tech Race
The Eni Award's 18th edition continues its annual recognition of energy and sustainability research, with this year's Young Talents from Africa prize going to battery-material recovery work. The stub does not place Sedikelo's method against named competing battery-recycling programs or prior milestones in the field.
The research has not yet been reported as available to consumers or industry, so no product or service change is currently in place. The approach could eventually help reduce battery waste as used batteries become more common, but timelines are not stated in the source.
The takeaway
Recycling end-of-life batteries is becoming a central question as clean-energy demand grows, and early-career African researchers are now receiving recognition for work in this area. Watch for whether Sedikelo's extraction approach moves from laboratory research into pilot or industrial recycling in South Africa or elsewhere on the continent.
Further reading
Explore more reporting in our Chemistry section for context on battery materials and recycling chemistry.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Tuko.co.ke - Kenya news..
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