CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS RESEARCH PROJECTS AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

CLEANLEAD GYPSUM Back to home page cleanlead_brochure

Full Title: Developing a new concept “clean-lead” factory for Europe.

Academic staff: Dr P A Claisse, Professor P Lorimer, Dr H Al-Daffaee

Research Staff: Gavin Cann and Heven Abdul Jabbar

Funding to CU: £274000 over 3 years from the European Union

Research Partners: Tecnicas Reunidas (Madrid), University of Lisbon and 8 other European partners

0.5 million tonnes of lead-acid batteries are disposed of in the EU each year. This project developed more efficient processes to recover materials from them; which will ensure that no waste is produced. Much of the work concerned the lead, but focus at Coventry was on the acid. This is currently neutralised and disposed of to landfill or the sea but, if mixed with lime, it forms gypsum. Gypsum is used in large quantities plasterboard and cement production. We developed a process which will use the acid to generate gypsum with suitable purity and particle size to be commercially acceptable for one of these uses.

Batteries awaiting recycling at a plant in Poland.