The 8th conference of the International Secondary Lead Conference (ISLC), the only international conference for secondary lead and lead battery scrap, began on September 4 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The last time was in Bali in 2019. MIRU, as a media partner and speaker, has been there since the 3rd and will report on the first day of the conference on the 4th.

 

Related article: International Conference on Acid Batteries and Lead-acid Batteries ABC, ISLC to Finally Meet Face-to-Face!　September 2023 in Cambodia

 

(Welcome party on the 3rd)

 

Opening remarks by ISLC Chairman Mark Stevenson

The ISLC, in its 14th year, had a record 250 participants.

He stated that with the recent circular economy perspective and the increasing demand for recycled lead, it is becoming increasingly important to have a forum to discuss recycling, and he is confident that RECYCLE 100 will be a meaningful event.

 

 

Mr. Huw of CHR metal

Customs statistics do not firmly separate recycled lead, antimony alloys, and lead bullions, making it difficult to understand their distribution.

In China, the border between primary and secondary is blurred.

Mexico, South Korea, and India are the three main sources of imports of used lead batteries, and they are increasing rapidly. The increase is mainly coming from the Middle East and Africa.

The recycling rate of ULAB (used lead-acid batteries) temporarily declined due to the Lehman Shock and Corona, but Asia is leading the recycling capacity.

Secondary refining in China has increased significantly, with 90 plants in operation and 50 planned. The current capacity is 30 million tons and there is not that much scrap generation, so prices are soaring.

India changed its rules in 2016.

The size of the African market is becoming harder to ignore, but data is still unreliable due to theft and the informal sector.

 

The next talk was given by Mr. Pugzenthy of the Lead Zinc Association of India, a familiar face at this ISLC.

 

Structured collection and safe transportation are important in India.

The existing battery disposal rules, established in 2001, only covered lead-acid batteries, but the revised rules for 2022 cover all batteries.

The FAME (Faster Adoption & Manufacture of EV) policy is expected to boost the growth of EVs.

The Pollution Control Board, a central government agency, has made it clear that all stakeholders are responsible for the recycling of waste batteries.

Online certification is becoming more widespread in various areas related to lead recycling.

The informal sector accounts for about 30% of the total.

LIB recycling remains small.

Hybrid vehicles are only prevalent among a few wealthy individuals.

625 certified processing facilities are in operation and have the right to bid at auctions.

 

 

Summary for Dong, founder of China's leading lead-acid battery company, Leoch International Technology Co, Ltd.

 

has a 65% share of primary smelting in China.

Recycled lead produced in China accounts for 29% of the global share.

Mine life is said to be 7.1 years, so there is a need to shift to recycling as soon as possible. The government has been steadily increasing the number of licensed collectors since 2015, with 155 licensed collectors and 77 secondary smelters with a total capacity of 15.2 million tons, but only 3.72 million tons are in operation, which is only far below half of the demand. He stated clearly that the quality of the recovery process, in which the informal sector accounts for 50% of the total, must be improved first, rather than easing the import restrictions on ULAB, where competition is severe.

 

Dr A.K. Ola Hekselman, founder of Solveteq Ltd. She was also a speaker at the 2019 ISLC in Bali. At that time, she was the University of London.

 

A spin-off company from London Imperial College.

Spun off from research on the electrical state of lead oxide in November 2021.

She attended for the first time in Bali in 2019 and was very grateful to receive a lot of feedback at the time which led to improvements.

Low temperature processing so low energy consumption and cost competitive leaching process is a selling point.

 

Next.

Presentation by Jiangsu New Chunxing Resource Recycling.

They have several European and U.S. patents from battery crushing and separation to refining.

The process does not require a pre-process for desulfurization and can be directly fed into a furnace.

The slag contains less than 0.5% SO2 without generating harmful gases and can be used as roadbed material as it is.

Energy consumption is half that of competitors. If this were to become the standard in China, the number of secondary refining companies would be reduced from 77 to 7.

 

The presentation was given by Gravita, a company that also has lead recycling operations in the Middle East, India, and Africa.

 

The difficulties in the African market are lack of funds, difficulty in remittance, and lack of demand for metal raw materials. However, the market is huge with 15% of the world's population, and the generation of scrap is expected to increase to the extent that e-waste is expected to become the world's largest emission source by 2025.

 

To be continued in the next issue.

 

Japanese site is here

 

 

(iruniverse Cambodia YT&YH, translated by S. Aoyama)

 

 

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