Past, present and future of lead battery recycling

Even today, the use of Lead-acid batteries is projected for the next 50 years. On the other hand, the legislative trend concerning human health and the environment makes evident the need for future innovation on recycling technologies. For this reason, the entire world is working, in the short term, in optimizing and adapting technologies, which today we consider BAT (Best Available Technologies). In the medium and long term, we must rather think of a radical change of technologies, including robotic technologies and futuristic scenarios with low temperature processes without emissions, for example using hydrogen as reducing agent. In this paper we describe, STC activities in these directions, in part within a research project funded by the Italian Authorities. Introduction Why is energy storage, such as the old Lead acid battery, still a leader in the market after nearly a century, with interesting prospects for the next 50 years? Certainly, for the very high reliability achieved in its use even in the most severe conditions, but also for the relatively easy recyclability of its component materials. Over the past hundred years, the business of battery recycling, in the developed countries, has evolved from a simple, small junkyard's activity, in complex industrial activities, concurrently with the growing of automotive industry and, consequently, with its larger economic interest. This rapid evolution has highlighted all the major environment related problems. The crucial aspects of recycling and recovery activities are not just a matter of process technology, but concern also the collection, selection, storage and transport of exhausted lead acid batteries. During the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe, the Authorities established public-private Consortia for the collection of batteries and their redistribution to secondary lead smelters.