title: A green lead hydrometallurgical process based on a hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell.
abstract: The automobile industry consumed 9 million metric tons of lead in 2012 for lead-acid batteries. Recycling lead from spent lead-acid batteries is not only related to the sustainable development of the lead industry, but also to the reduction of lead pollution in the environment. The existing lead pyrometallurgical processes have two main issues, toxic lead emission into the environment and high energy consumption; the developing hydrometallurgical processes have the disadvantages of high electricity consumption, use of toxic chemicals and severe corrosion of metallic components. Here we demonstrate a new green hydrometallurgical process to recover lead based on a hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell. High-purity lead, along with electricity, is produced with only water as the by-product. It has a >99.5% lead yield, which is higher than that of the existing pyrometallurgical processes (95-97%). This greatly reduces lead pollution to the environment.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. jqpan@mail.buct.edu.cn
authors.forename: Junqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Yanzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: Arumugam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manthiram
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004560:Electricity; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D006801:Humans; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry*; D008669:Metallurgy; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D010087:Oxides; D014867:Water; D007854:Lead; C047365:lead oxide; D006859:Hydrogen