NRI in Cambridge team that develops new recycling method   

     From Prasun Sonwalkar
        London, Sept 12 (PTI) Researchers from the University of
 Cambridge, including an Indian origin scholar, have developed
 a new method for recycling lead acid batteries which has the
 potential to transform the battery recycling industry.
        The process, developed by Vasant Kumar and his research
 colleagues at the Department of Materials Science &
 Metallurgy, uses less energy, produces fewer toxic emissions
 and is more cost-effective than current methods, the
 university said in a statement.
        Kumar is presenting the technology this week at the
 International Secondary Lead Conference in Hyderabad, India.
        Lead acid batteries are in wide use around the world,
 primarily in automobiles and other industrial applications.
 The batteries are relatively low in cost, have a large
 power-to-weight ratio, and can be recharged many times.
 Eventually, however, performance degrades and the batteries
 must be recycled, as lead is highly toxic to plants and
 animals.
        In North America and Europe, more than 95 per cent of
 lead acid batteries are recycled, as there is a
 well-established recycling infrastructure.
        In developing countries such as India, China and Russia,
 the same infrastructure does not yet exist, and automobile use
 is expanding rapidly.
        In the past, there has been little regulation of battery
 recycling in many of these countries, and the use of highly
 dangerous 'backyard smelters' is commonplace.
        Over the past several years, there has been increasing
 regulation controlling the use and recycling of lead in
 developing countries, although the conventional recycling
 method used in the West is only economically viable at a large
 scale, making it too expensive for many small operators, the
 release added.
        The conventional process involves dismantling the
 batteries, melting the spent battery paste in smelting
 furnaces at temperatures of 1000°C, pouring the molten lead
 into moulds, removing any impurities, and then re-melting the
 lead for use in new batteries.
        The Cambridge process developed by Dr Kumar and his
 colleagues directly recovers lead oxide from the spent battery
 paste. The battery paste is mixed with citric acid and the
 resulting crystallites are heated to a temperature of 350°C,
 resulting in a mixture of lead and lead oxide, which can be
 used for the manufacture of new lead battery paste.

        The Cambridge process uses about 8 per cent of the
 energy required by the conventional recycling process and
 produces fewer emissions of toxic sulphur dioxide and lead
 dust.
        The new process is also much lower in cost, as it
 eliminates the expensive smelting step that converts the
 battery paste to metallic lead, which is then re-oxidised to
 lead oxide in the conventional process. The Cambridge process
 is also economically viable on either a small or large scale.
        Cambridge Enterprise, the University's commercialisation
 group, and the Nonferrous Materials Technology Development
 Centre (NFTDC) in Hyderabad are seeking commercial partners to
 establish a pilot scale plant for demonstrating the Cambridge
 process. PTI PS
 AGL