United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA/540/F-94/510
September 1994
SUPERFUND INNOVATIVE
TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION
Emerging Technology Bulletin
Reclamation of Lead from Superfund Waste Material Using
Secondary Lead Smelters
Center for Hazardous Materials Research
Process Description: This process involves incorporating lead-
contaminated Superfund waste with the regular feed to a second-
ary lead smelter. Since secondary lead smelters already recover
lead from recycled automobile batteries, it seems likely that this
technology could be used to treat waste from lead-acid battery
contaminated Superfund sites. Such sites are very widespread
and constitute a significant problem in site remediation. The
overall process involves acquiring the waste material, transport-
ing it to a secondary smelter, blending it with typical feeds, and
smelting it to reclaim usable lead. A schematic of this process is
shown in Figure 1.
• Material Acquisition, Pre-processing, and Transportation
The first step in reclaiming lead from Superfund wastes is
acquiring and transporting the material to one of the smelters.
Pre-processing includes screening to remove soil, large stones,
or non-contaminated debris that cannot be processed through
a secondary smelter. Larger debris (>12 in.) is also removed
because large material tends to remain unburnt in reverbera-
tory furnaces.
• Blending with Typical Furnace Feeds
Material is blended with typical feed priorto processing through
the furnaces. Typical blend ratios range from 10% to 50% by
weight, based on treatability tests and other factors, such as
lead, sulfur, iron, or ash content.
• Smelting Process
Smelters typically contain tandem reverberatory/blast furnace
processes. The lead-containing material that is to be reclaimed
is first charged to the reverberatory furnaces. They process the
feed material into slag, which typically contains 60% to 70%
lead, and a soft (pure) lead productThe reverberatory furnace
slag is enhanced by processing it through a blast furnace. Iron
and limestone are added as fluxing agents to enhance furnace
production. The blast furnaces are tapped continuously to
remove lead and intermittently to remove the slag. The blast
slag, is transported to an offsite landfill for disposal.
• Lead produced in the blast and reverberatory furnaces is
transferred to the refining process where metals are added to
make specific lead alloys. The lead is then pumped to the
casting operations where it is molded into ingots for use in the
manufacture of new lead-acid batteries.
Waste Applicability: In general, the study demonstrated that
secondary lead smelters can treat lead contaminated wastes
from Superfund sites provided that the waste is reduced to the
Transport of material
Lead to battery
plant
Slag to
-
\
\
h
"\
Reverb ^
furnace
1
Blast _
furnace
Mixing
Smelter
Typical
smelter feed
Figuriro 1. Schematic of reclamation process.
right size (less than 1/4 in.) and is not fed too quickly (at more
than 50% of the smelter feedrate). Waste feed combinations of
between 1% and 45% lead can be successfully fed to the sec-
ondary smelter.
Teslt Results: Materials from three Superfund sites, a construc-
tion site, and a bridge sandblasting operation were processed
during this project. Table 1 presents a summary of the materials
tested and the evaluations. The feed rates are presented as
weight ratios of test material to total furnace feed.
Project personnel collected samples and data to assess the
furnace performance, characterize the input material, and char-
acterize the furnace outputs. Table 2 shows the parameters that
wero measured and how they were obtained.
Lead was reclaimed from all test materials over a range of
efficiencies, from an estimated 70% for the abrasive blasting
material to 99.5% for NL Industries material.
j
The cost for remediating lead-acid battery sites using this tech-
nology ranged from $35/ton to $375/ton based on a variety of
factors such as lead concentration, market price for lead, dis-
tance from the smelter, percent of test material that becomes
incorporated into the final slag, iron content, BTU value of the
test material, and sulfur content.
Printed on Recycled Paper
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Tfbf»1. Summary oi Demonstration Sties
Source:
SltaTypo:
Length ot Tost:
MtterMTyp*:
Amount
Procossod:
PtacentTeat
Material In Fead:
Lead Concentration:
Pn-
Processing:
DttHcutttoe
Encountorad:
TonollSlte
Intograiad battery breaker,
smelter, and lead refiner
5 days
Rubber end plastic
battery cases
84 tons
10%
3.5%
Nona
Altomptad to pro-
cess In iQVQti), but
malarial was too largo
HebelkaSte
Automobile junk
and salvage yard
1day
Rubber and plastic
battery cases with
some soil
8 tons
17%
14.7%
Reduced to less
than 1/4 lit. in a
hammermll
Nona
Demolition Waste
Not applicable
2 days
Demolition debris
coated with lead
paint
4 tons
5%
1%
Reduced In size
with a pallet shredder
.... Initial feed ratio was
too high
NL Industries Site
Integrated battery breaker,
smelter, and refiner with
OnsRo landfill
Preliminary, 4 days; full, 3 mo
Lead slag, debris, dross, Ingots;
battery case plecas, bag-
house bags, pallets, cans
Preliminary test: 370 tons
full-scale test: 1200 tons
20% to 50%
Preliminary, 57%; full, 30% to 50%
Large pieces removed for
processing In the blast
furnace
Rev9ib could not process _
100% waste malarial
PennDOT
Bridge blasting
operation to re-
move lead paint
iday
Iron shot bridge-
blasting material
6 tons
13%
3.2%
None
Material was too
moist to process
In reverb furnace
7»W» 2. Input, Output, and Operating Parameters
Input Material
Characterization
Total lead (S)
Suitor (S)
Sites (S)
Calcium (S)
Afc&tura contort! (S)
Density (U)
Partkbslza
distribution (U)
BTU value (S)
Furnace Performance
Parameters
Teat material In the feed (M)
Air flow (M)
% oxygen enrichment (M)
Fuel usage (M)
Lead Inputs (S)
Iron inputs (S)
% test material In
feed(M)
Furnace Output
Parameters
Lead production rates (M)
Slag production rates (M)
Slag viscosity (O)
\
% lead In the slag (S)
% sulfur In the slag (S)
Backpressure (M)
Sulfur dioxide
emissions (M)
Calcium sulfate sludge (S)
(S) - Samplf (M) m Measurement (O) - Operator observation
For Further Information:
EPA Project Manager
Laurel Staley
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory - USEPA
26 West Martin Luther King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
(513) 569-7863
Technology Developer Contact:
Stephen Paff
Center for Hazardous Materials Research
320 William Pitt Way
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
(412) 826-5320
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Center for Environmental Research Information
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA
PERMIT No. G-35
EPA/540/F-94/510
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