Lead acid battery recycling in Costa Rica: a case study

Abstract

This work describes the production of secondary lead in a smelter located in Costa Rica. The only input of the plant is scrap automotive batteries. We describe the environmental management strategies used for waste minimization, including the waste characterization and minimization of gaseous emissions. The waste characterization included the sulphidic slag containing varying quantities of lead (total lead content and TCLP), along with the gaseous analysis (SO 2 , TSP and P-Pb). Through process improvement, we reduced both the quantity of slag produced and the lead loss to the slag, as well as the concentrations of gas pollutants in the gaseous emissions.