Reciclado Baterias

RHI Bulletin > 1 > 2010, pp. 56–62

Alfred Spanring

Refractory Applications in the Secondary Lead
Industry
Introduction
Wherever secondary energy is dealt with, batteries are
nearly always involved. Batteries store electrical energy in
the form of chemical energy (equation 1), and during the
discharging process this chemical energy is reconverted
into electrical energy (equation2). Depending on the type of
battery, this process may be reversible or irreversible.
Charging:

2PbSO4 + 2H2O → PbO2 + Pb + H2SO4

(1)

Discharging:

PbO2 + Pb + H2SO4 → 2PbSO4 + 2H2O

(2)

Batteries are generally categorized into primary (i.e., nonchargeable) and secondary (i.e., chargeable). The latter
includes the well-known lead-acid battery. The major source
of scraplead for recycling is obtained from this battery
type, in particular starter (Figure 1) and industrial batteries.
These batteries are designed to supply large amounts of
energy for a short period of time. The lead-acid accumulator is another application example of this versatile form of

Negative pole

secondary power supply and is used to store energy generated by solar cells. The weightof these systems ranges
from a few kilograms to several tonnes. Therefore, these
secondary energy units also play a major role in pyrometallurgical lead recycling.
As a result of efficient recycling (e.g., collection points and
scrap merchants) waste batteries are sold to lead plants
either directly or through dealers. For example, Germany
has an excellent collection system with areturn rate of
> 95%.
Currently, the lead recycling industry is booming due to a
number of factors including an optimistic prognosis for the
lead market as well as a continued positive lead price development on the London Metal Exchange (LME), which is currently at e1446 per tonne (Figure 2). Three decades ago,
this heavy metal reached a historical all-time high of
approximately e2800 pertonne in October 2007.
Between 1997 and 2007 there was a 36% global increase in
Pb consumption (Table I), equating to a development from
approximately 6 million tonnes to over 8 million tonnes. A
significant increase of 133% has occurred in Asia, chiefly as
a result of increased demand in China.

Plate block

Positive cell connection
Positive plate set

Negative grid
Positiveplate

Negative plate set
Negative plate

Microporous separator
Positive grid
Source: www.varta.com
Figure 1. Schematic of a starter battery [1].

56 <

RHI Bulletin > 1 > 2010

2000

BMB Statistic

1800

LME Development [cash e/tonne]

1800

1653

1600

1404

1400
1200

Globally, the level of lead derived from secondary production is at approximately 60%, and inNorth America it even
reaches 70%. A comparison of the total lead production,
secondary production, and usage in the Western world during the last five decades is detailed in Figure 3.

1024

1000
800
600

applications. In contrast, the proportion of recycled lead for
plumbing applications (i.e., sanitary installations) has significantly decreased.

714
562

481 478

535

512482

1533

786

454

The important role of secondary lead production is reflected
in the relative number of primary and secondary lead smelting plants in Western Europe (Table II):

400
200
0

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 05/2010

Year
Figure 2. London Metal Exchange standard lead price development from1997–05/2010 [2].

Lead is used andrequired by all industrial nations. The USA
is still the world’s largest consumer of secondary lead,
closely followed by Asia (i.e., China, Japan, and Korea) as
well as Europe (i.e., UK, France, and Germany). The largest
proportion of recycled lead is used to produce batteries,
which are becoming ever more important for various

>> Primary production: Approximately 7 smelting plants...