Lead acid batteries are commonly used in the automobiles. The Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan (EPA)has estimated that about 50,000 tonnes of lead acid battery waste were created every year. Recycling process of lead-acid batteries causes a lot of interest in the issues of the environmental protection. Precipitation and sedimentation are the common techniques used to remove lead from solution. However, coagulation and flocculation require large amounts of coagulant chemicals, and generate sludges that were consisted of lead with around 1-8 wt% concentration. Generally, these sludges cannot be regarded as an industrial waste for landfill. The fluidized bed crystallization (FBC) technology can substantially reduce the sludge and recycle the lead from waste lead acid batteries. In FBC, inorganic carbonate is used as the precipitant to recover lead by forming the lead carbonate crystal. The products of lead crystal in FBC can be used as a raw material in future electroplating process. This work adopts 10,40 and 200mg/L lead as a synthetic waste water from lead acid batteries, and aims to achieve an effluent level lower than 1 mg/L lead, which can meet the Taiwan EPA standard. The lead carbonate crystal product from FBC can be treated with electrode position in acid to recover lead. 42 g/L lead crystal was dissolved in 0.6 M nitric acid solution, which resulted in 99% lead removal efficiencyafter 4 hours. Lead metal will be recovered on the cathodeand lead oxide will be generated on in the anode.

“Lead acid batteries”, “fluidized bed crystallization”, “electrode position”