1. Chunxing’s independently researched and developed used battery breaking and sorting machine won the 22nd Chinse Patent Award for Excellence. The breaker is also patented in the EU and the USA. The breaker not only separates the Lead grids but can also extract the Lead fines thereby increasing the valuable metallic Lead extraction rate by more than 5%.
2. A conjoined smelting furnace operation has been adopted with the refractory bricks protected by water jackets, enabling the furnace to be in operation for a prolonged period of time resulting in reduced maintenance costs.
The main smelting furnace can produce Lead bullion with over 99% purity, saving reagents and energy used in the refining process.
Paste reduction and smelting are carried out in an auxiliary furnace by recycling materials from a volatile precipitation during the operation of the main furnace, which together with the baghouse dust produces Lead alloys. The copper free Lead grid fines of the used battery anode plate, that have been sorted by the breaker are also smelted in the auxiliary furnace producing Lead alloys.
3. The Chunxing ULAB process technology is different from the pre-desulfurization (sodium carbonate conversion) process adopted by many other secondary lead recycling plants worldwide. In the Chunxing process technology, after ULAB breaking, the Lead paste does not need pre-desulfurization and is charged directly to the smelting furnace. No iron or soda ash is required to be added in the furnace during the smelting process.
4. The adjustable spray gun invented by Chunxing can increase amount of heat directly under the Lead melt, thereby greatly improving the thermal efficiency of the process and at the same time reduces the amount of natural gas or oil used to heat the furnace. The controllable static tapping of slag reduces the Lead content in the furnace residue to less than 0.5%.
5. The smelting furnace adopts Chunxing’s proprietary oxygen-free Lead tapping technology, that isolates the air during the Lead tapping process and minimizes Lead oxidation.
6. By extending and increasing the contact area and time between the sulfur dioxide gas and the alkaline solution, Chunxing developed a tubular spiral desulfurization tower to achieve the elimination of sulfur doxide. Atmospheric test results from stack emission samples show that the sulfur dioxide content is less than 10 mg/m3 and Lead dust is less than 0.1 mg/ m3. The process by-product, gypsum, is produced directly and is over 95% pure.
7. 6 to 8 metric tons of steam (per hour) can be produced by the waste heat recovery boiler connected to the smelting furnace. (One metric ton of steam consumes about 80 cubic meters of natural gas).
With Chunxing’s processing technology, the production of one metric ton lead consumes 120 kg of coal fines and produces 80 kg of slag. Neither sodium carbonate nor iron are consumed in this ultra-low-cost technology.
Presenters
Mr. Yang Chunming, the founder of the Chunxing Group, has long been committed to the research of secondary lead smelting technology, and to date has more than 80 non-polluting secondary lead smelting proprietary and patented technologies, he was rated as a national non-ferrous metal industry labour model, and won the first prize for Science & Technology Progress issued by the China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association in December 2022.
