Spent lead-acid battery recycling in China - A review and sustainable analyses on mass flow of lead.
Lead is classified to be one of the top heavy metal pollutants in China. The corresponding environmental issues especially during the management of spent lead-acid battery have already caused significant public awareness and concern. This research gives a brief overview on the recycling situation based on an investigation of the lead industry in China and also the development of technologies for spent lead-acid batteries. The main principles and research focuses of different technologies including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and greener technologies are summarized and compared. Subsequently, the circulability of lead based on the entire life cycle analyses of lead-acid battery is calculated. By considering different recycling schemes, the recycling situation of spent lead-acid battery in China can be understood semi-quantitatively. According to this research, 30% of the primary lead production can be shut down that the lead production can still ensure consecutive life cycle operation of lead-acid battery, if proper management of the spent lead-acid battery is implemented according to current lead industry situation in China. This research provides a methodology on the view of lead circulability in the whole life cycle of a specific product and is aiming to contribute more quantitative guidelines for efficient organization of lead industry in China.
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. Electronic address: zhisun@126.com.
Zhi
Z
Sun
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. Electronic address: hbcao@ipe.ac.cn.
Hongbin
H
Cao
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Beijing 100029, China.
Xihua
X
Zhang
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Xiao
X
Lin
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Wenwen
W
Zheng
China Battery Industry Association, Beijing 100740, China.
Guoqing
G
Cao
Edith Cowan University School of Engineering, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.
Yong
Y
Sun
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Yi
Y
Zhang
D002681:China; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D007854:Lead; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D059027:Recycling
D019216:Metals, Heavy; D007854:Lead
Circulability; Management; Recycling; Review; Spent lead-acid battery