January 5, 2023: A new lead battery breaker plant supplied by Italian engineering company STC for Tunisian battery producer Nour is to start operations before spring, BESB has learned.
STC said last April that it had been awarded a $5 million contract to supply a lead battery recycling plant to Nour.
An STC spokesperson told BESB on January 4 that production of the five-tonnes-per-hour unit had been completed on schedule and was in the pre-assembly stage ahead of delivery.
Installation of the unit will be carried out by technicians of STC, which is part of the Monbat group.
Technology featured at the plant will include the company’s novel ‘U4Lead’ paste desulfurization tech, which STC says will produce “highly desulfurized lead paste and ammonium sulfate as a by-product, which is easily saleable as fertilizer”.
The facility will comprise an automated scrap batteries feeding system, together with systems for magnetic metals separation, battery crushing with an STC hammer mill, components separation, paste filtration with membrane squeezing, a fully automatic filter press, electrolyte collection and neutralization and a general ventilation and gas scrubbing system.
STC said the components separation system will be able to recover polypropylene chips, PE separators, fine metallic lead, poles and posts, fine paste, coarse paste and clean electrolyte.
The Nour recycling deal was agreed following Monbat’s formal acquisition of a 60% stake in Nour, announced on April 6 in 2022.
Photos: STC