A technical and economic survey of technologies for recycling exhausted lead-acid battery
2001
Micali, G. | Lanuzza, F. (Messina Univ. (Italy). Dipartimento di Studi su Risorse, Impresa, Ambiente e Metodologie Quantitative) | Mondello, F.
English. In this paper the Italian situation related to the regulation, the collection and the quantity of the exhausted lead acid batteries was examined. In 1998 Italian lead production was 210,000 tons, 90,000 of which derived from the recycling industry; this quantity was equal to 33% of the national requirement that is around 270,000 tons yearly. The quantity of exhausted lead-acid batteries collected in 1999 was 166,500 tons, equal to 95% of the total collected. The technologies of recycling allowed us to recover almost all the materials employed for their manufacture; in addition to lead, polypropylene and PVC were also recovered. In this paper the commonly used technologies of lead recovery, based on two processes, the pyrometallurgical and the electrochemical one, were examined from a technological, economic and environmental impact point of view. Both processes showed advantages and disadvantages, even if a general evaluation was difficult. In a global evaluation, taking into consideration the materials to recycle, the relationship between costs and benefits and the environmental implications, the available data allowed us to identify the pyrometallurgical process as that with the highest efficiency
Show more [+] Less [-]Italian. Viene esaminata la situazione italiana riguardante la normativa, la raccolta e la quantita' prodotta di accumulatori al piombo esausti. Le tecnologie di riciclaggio consentono di recuperare quasi tutte le materie prime impiegate per la costruzione degli accumulatori; infatti, oltre al piombo, vengono recuperate anche il polipropilene ed il PVC. In questo lavoro sono valutate - dal punto di vista tecnologico, economico e dell'impatto ambientale - le tecnologie di recupero del piombo piu' comunemente usate; esse si basano su due processi: il pirometallurgico e l'elettrochimico. I dati disponibili, in una valutazione globale che tiene conto dei materiali da riciclare, dei rapporti costi-benefici e delle implicazioni ambientali, mostrano che il processo pirometallurgico sembra essere quello piu' efficiente
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