Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 10 (1994) 137-143 137

Elsevier Science B.V.

The recycling of lead-acid batteries: production

of lead and polypropylene

R. J o l l y and C. Rhin
Metaleurop Recherche 1, Trappes, France

ABSTRACT

Recycling of lead-acid batteries is a process of great interestin the lead industry. Nowadays, about
47% of the totalworld lead production results from lead secondary smelting. The main raw material
entering this process is thc used lead-acid battery, whether being a starter, a traction or a standby
battery. Roughly, about 85% of used batteries are recycled.
The lead acid battery is a complex industrial product, constituted by several different materials.
The firststep of the recycling process is an effective separation of these battery components, so as to
recover further valuable products. Throughout the separation process, crushing, sieving and flotation
techniques are used.
Lead recycling industry has also become a net producer of recycled plastic:polypropylcnc, rccycla-
blc material whose consumption as battery boxes is increasing. The Mctalcurop group, already pre-
mier lead producer in EEC, has bccomc through its subsidiary division C2P (Cookson Pcnarroya
Plastics) the firstEuropean producer of recycled polypropylcne from lead-acid battery boxes.
The second step of the process is to melt and reduce Icad compounds into metal, and then to refine
this metal for new applications, like batteries.Contrary to other recycled products, lead quality is not
lowcrcd through secondary smelting, and is of the same high grade as lead from primary smelting

Key words: Batteries; Recycling; Lead; Polypropylene

THE LEAD-ACID BATTERY. A RECYCLABLE P R O D U C T

Lead-acid battery, a major recycled consumer good

Nowadays, about 47% of the total world lead production is from lead sec-
ondary smelting. The data for lead production are shown in Table 1. The part
coming from lead recycling is increasing due to the evolution of the lead mar-
ket and to new regulations.
The lead-acid battery plays a major role in this recycling loop. Indeed, about
85% of lead acid batteries are currently recycled (Fig. 1 ). Due to well estab-
lished collection networks, the recycling is efficient, especially when the bat-

Correspondence to: R. Jolly, Metaleurop Recherche, l avenue Albert Einstein - B.P. 120 78193
Trappes Cedex - France.

0921-3449/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All fights reserved.

138 R. JOLLY AND C. RHIN

TABLE 1

Importance of recycling in lead production ( 1990 in thousand tons)

World EEC France

Lead consumption 5653.1 1513.2 254.5

Lead production 5676.0 1389.1 260.0

Including lead recycling 2676.1 737.3 123.2
Recycling/production (%) 47 53 47

Metaleurop
Lead production 424.1 421.7 195.5
Including lead recycling 117.7 115.3 58.7

Aluminium can~

0 20 40 60 ao lOO%

Fig. 1. Estimated collection rates ofvariousrecyclable products in WesternEurope.

teries are compared with other recyclable products. In Western Europe, the
lead-acid battery is well ahead the collection rate of glass, paper and metallic
cans, products which are in the forefront of recyclability (Fig. 1 ).

Battery constitution
The lead-acid battery is a complex consumer good made of several mate-
rials. A schematic representation is given in Fig. 2.
The mass composition of a lead acid battery with a polypropylene con-
tainer is given in Table 2. The main component is lead, either metallic, oxide
or sulphate. The sulphuric acid also represents a major fraction.
Two constituents of the battery can be recycled: lead and polypropylene.
Thus, an effective liberation and a further separation is required so as to va-
lorize these two valuable products and to stabilize the others.

The battery cycle

The life-cycle of a lead-acid battery is schematically drawn in Fig. 3.
The used batteries are gathered by the collection network. The main tradi-
RECYCLING OF LEAD-ACID BATTERIES 139

TAPERED
TERMINAL
POSTS

VENT PLUGS
\ THROUGH THE
PARTITION
CONNECTORS

:!?!!i? •

POSITIVE

'~ SEPARATORS

~IEGATIVEPLATE

CONTAINER
ELEMENT RESTS

SEDIMENT SPACE
Fig. 2. Battery constitution.

tional circuit takes advantage of the recycled motion of scrap iron and used
metals. Other circuits are simultaneously existing or in development in order
to improve the battery collection efficiency.
The batteries are then sent to secondary smelting units. A part of the free
140 R. JOLLYAND C. RHIN

TABLE 2

Composition of a battery with a polypropylene box (in kg)

Acid (n2so4) 3.85

Lead 8.64
Grid (metallic) (3.00)
Connexions (metallic) ( 0.80 )
Battery paste (oxide, sulphate) (4.84)
Box (polypropylene) 0.67
Other materials (plastic, paper, wood, PVC .... ) 0.34

Total 13.50

velght

10% to 20,~ of final*tamed battedn

Fig. 3. Life cycle of lead-acid batteries.

acid is often lost during these handlings. The collection and transportation
network is currently working to implement either the recycling of full batter-
ies or their draining in order to minimise the acid losses.
In the secondary smelting units, the remaining free acid is collected and
completely neutralized. The batteries are crushed and the main constituents
are separated. About 5% of the battery weight is collected as plastic wastes.
The lead, 55% of battery weight is separated, smelted and refined to meet
the high quality standards of the automotive industry and to be further used
again in new batteries.
The polypropylene from battery boxes (5% of battery weight) is also sepa-
rated and valorized as polypropylene granules.
RECYCLINGOFLEAD-ACIDBATTERIES 141

PROCESSING OF RECYCLED BATTERIES

Battery breaking Separation of the main constituents

-

Breaking consists of crushing batteries to the point where liberation of com-

ponents is sufficiently achieved. Further improvement techniques applied for
the separation of materials are based on their physical properties, mainly par-
ticle size and density. The flow sheet is schematically given in Fig. 4.
After an initial simple breaking, sieving permits the recovery of the battery
paste (fine particles of lead oxide and sulphate). The remaining solid con-
sisting of lead grids, bakelite and polypropylene is crushed again to a lower
particle size, for better separation efficiency.
Hydraulic separation sorts out the lead grids from the other compounds.
Then, in a further stage of hydraulic separation, polypropylene is efficiently
separated from ebonite, bakelite and separators. These last steps take advan-
tage of the different density of the solids: ebonite-bakelite (d = 1.3 ), polypro-
pylene (d=0.9), lead (d= 11.4).

Polypropyleneproduction
To achieve the best valorization of the polypropylene source coming from
the battery recycling, both companies Cookson Industrial Materials and Pen-
arroya (now Metaleurop) decided to create a joint venture: Cookson Penar-
roya Plastics (C2P) in 1988. The polypropylene, coming from Metaleurop
lead secondary smelting units is treated by C2P in Villefranche sur Saone
(France).
C2P is the European leader in the recycling of polypropylene from auto-
motive battery boxes. The two production lines of C2P are able to treat daily
more than 40 tons of polypropylene chips resulting from the crushing of fifty
thousand batteries. Other sources of polypropylene are also processed, such
as car bumpers or dashboards.
The main markets for the polypropylene chips are the automotive industry,

Crusher Screcm~ Cmshe~

Hy&a~c
separator
Hydraulic
scpa~-ator

-tt tf- t
Used...__.. Po]ypropylene
)
Batteries
FinesJ Dense1 Dense[
Batterypaste Metallic Bakelite-Ebonite
(lead grid)
Fig. 4. Schematic representation of the breaking workshop.
142 R. JOLLYANDC. RHIN

BAG-HOUSEFILTER

Feed.hoppers ~ T1

"' I!!!11111111
CAS, G .AC" FI' G-UP S,O GE

REFININGKETTLE

Fig. 5. Schematic representation of the smelting workshop.

horticulture and technical applications. Major european car manufacturers

have approved various grades of C2P's polypropylene, for example for inner
wheel arch mouldings.

Lead smelting
In this part of the process, the lead compounds coming from the breaking
workshop are reduced. A description of the process is given in Fig. 5.
The pyrometallurgical tool used in Metaleurop's lead secondary smelters is
a rotary kiln, either short or long. This allows us to minimize the total amount
of waste.
Due to their high quality, the lead alloys produced in the refining workshop
can be used directly by the battery manufacturers. No degradation of quality
is observed. Consequently, new batteries can be produced from used batteries.

CONCLUSIONS

the lead acid battery is a complex consumer good, made of several different
materials (metal, plastics, liquids ). The recycling of such products requires a
separation process for production of valuable concentrates of lead and poly-
propylene. Further processing of these concentrates has been developed in
RECYCLING OF LEAD-ACID BATTERIES 14 3

order to produce marketable products. Recycled polypropylene chip quality

has been agreed by the main European car manufacturers, for example for
inner wheel arch mouldings.
The lead alloys produced in the smelting process can be used directly by
battery manufacturers.
The knowledge acquired during the development of the separation process
is based on granulometric and density separations. It may be transfered to the
treatment of other complex industrial products with similar characteristics,
for example, plastic separation or valorization of car crushing residue.