A green lead hydrometallurgical process based on a hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell
A green lead hydrometallurgical process based on a hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell
Junqing Pan, Yanzhi Sun, Wei Li, James Knight & Arumugam Manthiram
Nature Communications, 2013, 3178, 1-6 
1, The automobile industry consumed 9 million tons of lead in 2012 for lead-acid batteries. Recycling lead from spent lead-acid batteries is not only related to the sustainable development of the lead industry, but also to the reduction of lead pollution in the environment. The existing lead pyrometallurgical processes have two main issues, toxic lead emission and high energy consumption;
2, Here we demonstrate a green hydrometallurgical process to recover lead based on a hydrogen-lead oxide fuel cell. High purity lead, along with electricity, is produced with only water as the by-product.
