This article provides a very practical outlook on the estimates of cost of a lead recycling plant for any new Entrepreneur planning to set up his own Battery Recycling facility.
A Lead Recycling plant or a lead acid battery recycling plant cost hugely depends on the scale of the project and the business model that the owner of the plant plans to adopt.
To explain this further there are several sub operations within the broad terminology of Lead recycling.
These operations are
The process starts from Battery collection and procurement.
Once the scrap batteries reach the factory, the batteries can be processed in 2 ways. Either they can be processed in a Automatic Battery Breaking and Separation unit (BBSU) where the batteries are crushed in a Hammer Mill and All components like
This is the ideal way and should be used in all the Lead Smelting Facilities.
The Other method is where the Top of the Battery is cut with the help of a battery cutting machine and the components mentioned above are separated manually.
So the First cost is the cost of Equipment for crushing or cutting. The Battery Breaking and Separation Unit can cost between USD 800,000/- to USD 4,500,000/- .
The capacity of the plant can be between 3 MT per hour to 15 MT / Hour.
The Cutting machine may cost between USD 20,000/- .
Ideally the Battery breaking and separation unit should be used for a plant of any capacity.
There are many other process advantages of a Battery Breaking and Separation unit, further down the line in smelting and refining operations.
If paste and Lead and separators are separated, then the charge in the rotary furnace can be optimised and process time can be saved.
The second system that comes in Line is the Smelting Unit which comprises a Rotary Furnace and Air Pollution control system together.
The capacity of these furnaces can range between 2 MT per Batch to 25 MT per batch. The higher the capacity of the furnace, the handling systems to support the furnace will also become expensive.
However the flip side of the coin is that the bigger the capacity of the plant, the lower the production cost.
So the CAPEX may increase exponentially when you are going for a batch size above 12 MT / Batch.
Smelting units may cost around USD 90,000/- to USD 700,000/- depending on the peripheral systems opted for.
Higher capacities of Rotary Furnace also attract CAPEX for Oxy-fuel Heating systems and Oxygen generation Plants.
Once the Jumbo Moulds of Bullion Lead are ready, they are now ready to be refined in the Refining Kettles.
The Refining Kettles also come along with a separate Air Pollution Control System.
The cost for these vary from USD 20,000/- to USD 100,000/-. Air Pollution control system may cost additional.
After the refining process, the pure Molten lead in the refining kettle has to be casted in Ingots of 25 kgs – 40 Kgs and then these ingots need to be stacked one on top of other in stacks of 1 MT and then dispatched to the customer.
The casting and stacking machine may cost around USD 75,000/- to USD 90,000/- .
Please note that the operations mentioned above are the main operations and there are several peripheral operations that may cost extra like the Water treatment plant, the furnace feeding system, the slag handling system, dross handling system, Bullion Lead Moulds, Bullion Tray Trolleys, SCADA systems, plastic washing and crushing and other items specific to the location.
To give an estimate of the cost of other peripheral items, the feeding of the furnace can be done with a feeding arrangement forklift which costs around USD 30,000/-.
If the furnace is bigger in size then we might need a special vibratory feeder, the cost of which may go upto USD 150,000/-.
If Battery breaking and separation unit is installed, a separate plastic crushing system will not be required as the battery will be crushed in the BBSU itself.
The equipment cost mentioned above is where the Raw material considered is Battery Scrap which will be processed until refined lead.
If you remember we opened this article by mentioning Business model.
If the Business owner decides to buy Remelted Lead (Bullion Lead) as raw material instead of the Battery scrap, then he need not invest in the battery Breaking and Separation unit and Smelting Unit.
The process will start directly from Refining and further on.
Please note that the above costs are estimates and may vary depending on the time of plant supply from the Equipment manufacturer.
Also note that the Electrical and other infrastructure costs are not mentioned in the above article.
Another major cost involved in this project is the Land and the shed cost.
Land required will be around 4000 Sq meter for battery breaking and separation unit and further 4000 Sq meter for Smelting and Refining Operations.
So the above article provides cost estimates of individual operations of lead recycling and also provides a slight insight on what capacities of equipment are in the market and also helps the reader to understand the business model.