Lead Acid Batteries (LAB) are critical in automotive starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) applications, stand-by power applications, tele-communications, computer networking and will be further driven by energy storage of renewables such as wind and solar, and traction, motive applications (vans, forklifts, carts, e-bikes). LAB recycling rates are very high in Europe (95%) but this comes at a significant energy cost and a high pollution risk/cost. Avoiding the emission of SOx, NOx and particulates from smelting is expensive, and not always effective. Furthermore, as smelting plants are only economically viable at large scale (typically 50,000 tonnes/yr, £34 million capex) each facility serves a wide area. LABs, a hazardous waste, are therefore shipped huge distances for processing. More than 200,000 tonnes of waste LABs crossed EU borders in 2007\.

Another problem with current recycling technology is that the smelted lead ingot must be further processed to produce the essential ingredient for new LABss: the active leady oxide paste (PbO with Pb metal). Re-oxidising the lead to PbO requires a secondary process whereby lead ingot is heated to 350oC. This additional process is costly to LAB manufacturers (£250/tonne) and energy consuming (350 MWh/10,000 LABs processed).

Our project aims to revolutionise LAB recycling to deliver an improved, next generation LAB. Our innovation is a novel, green method of synthesising ultra-pure, nanostructured phases of leady oxide (PbxOy with Pb metal) from spent LABs. The method enables unprecedented control of the crystal structure to produce desired phases of PbxOy, which allows us to fine tune the performance of new LABs (e.g. improved power and energy density for automotive batteries; improved cycle life for renewable energy storage; etc).

The project builds on a long-standing partnership with Cambridge University (UCAM). Previously, the partners developed a hydrometallurgical, green method of recovering lead and leady oxides from spent LABs, reducing the carbon footprint (vs incumbent recyclers) by 85% and waste by \>90%, while saving up to 20% in production costs. This innovation builds on that knowledge and IP, by controlling the output material - nanostructured leady oxides -- which is the key to unprecedented optimisation of new LABs performance. With this innovation we will contribute in supporting the world's switch to electricity via energy storage that is affordable, safe, highly efficient and which does not rely heavily on critical raw materials.

The team is led by Dr Fox, CEO and Mr Freeman, MD of Aurelius Technology (AT); Prof. Kumar, Principal Investigator at UCAM, Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy; Dr Selvaraj, who is a senior researcher at both UCAM and AT having worked on the lead battery recycling projects since 2018 and Dr Knight, Technical Officer at both UCAM and AT guiding technology transfer with the AT Managers. The team, in collaboration with other members of AT and UCAM, have shown that the future of LABs can be environmentally friendly, can support the drive to a circular economy and a shift away from fossil fuels, and can promote low-carbon process.