In this study, a bench scale pilot plant was designed and built to investigate the effectiveness of ammoniacal ammonium sulphate leaching (the AAS Process) for battery recycling. The major pilot plant equipment consisted of a leaching column, settling tank and electrowinning tank. The leaching column effected a physical separation of the metallic lead pieces contained in the (crushed battery material) feed, while dissolving the lead compounds. The settling tank was necessary to clarify the AAS, removing the insoluble PbO{dollar}sb2{dollar} and undissolved PbSO{dollar}sb4{dollar} and PbO. Finally, the dissolved lead was recovered by electrowinning.; The only inputs to the process were NH{dollar}sb3{dollar} (to make up for evaporation and (NH{dollar}sb4{dollar}){dollar}sb2{dollar}SO{dollar}sb4{dollar} production) and electricity for electrowinning. All products produced by the process were useful: hard lead from the metallics in the feed, soft lead from electrowinning and (NH{dollar}sb4{dollar}){dollar}sb2{dollar}SO{dollar}sb4{dollar} which is saleable as fertilizer.; The pilot plant successfully demonstrated the suitability of the AAS process for recycling lead-acid batteries. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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