Study Of Cleaner Production Of Lead-Acid Battery Industry And Lead Flows And Stocks In China

China has witnessed a rapid increase in production and consumption of lead-acid batteries(LABs)for over a decade,and the lead industry has also been significantly facilitated.The rapid development of lead-related industries has led to many lead pollution incidents and posed great threats to public health.Against such background,this study aims to calculate the dynamic lead efficiencies and lead emissions from the whole LAB industry chain,assess the life-cycle environmental impacts of LABs,reveal the dynamic evolution of lead flows and stocks in China's socio-economic systems from 2000 to 2014,and project the future flows and stocks towards 2030.Finally,policy recommendations are proposed for the management of lead resources and the control of lead pollution in China.Based on in-depth survey of lead production,LAB manufacturing,and spent LAB recovery,the dynamic lead efficiencies and lead emission factors were established for the whole LAB industry chain between 2000 and 2014.Then the spatial-temporal evolution of lead emissions from LAB industry and secondary lead industry was analyzed in China.From 2000 to 2014,the average utilization efficiency of lead in LAB manufacturing increased from 93.6% to 97.3%,and the average recovery rate of lead in secondary lead production increased from 83.3% to 94.2%.The rising trend of lead emissions was reversed by a series of measures against heavy metal pollution since 2011.A life cycle assessment(LCA)model was established to evaluate the environmental impact of traction LABs used in electrical bikes,covering the stage of raw material production,battery manufacture,battery transportation,battery use,and end-of-life treatment of spent batteries and lead waste.Raw material production and battery use are the two key stages accounting for impacts derived from resources and energy consumption.Recovery of lead and plastics from spent LABs can offset most of the environmental impacts from the production of raw materials.Cadmium-free container formation battery technology shows significant environmental benefits,which can reduce 53% of life-cycle cadmium emissions and 10~21% of human and ecological toxicity potentials for LABs.Lead metabolism in China's social and economic systems was revealed by a dynamic model for substance flow analysis.From 2000 to 2014,lead in-use stocks increased from 1.53 million tons to 11.98 million tons,of which the lead in-use stocks in LABs accounted for 75~77%.The increasing use of LABs was the driving force for the increase of lead in-use stocks.From 1990 to 2014,lead in-use stocks increased from 0.70 kg per capita to 8.7 kg per capita.Scenarios of lead in-use stocks in LABs from 2015 to 2030 were modeled by a bottom-up method.Then lead demands for the LAB industry and the whole industry were projected based on the in-use stock-driven model.Scenario analysis indicates that lead demand will be significantly slowed down or even reduced in China,and the lead oversupply will be aggravated.Redundant lead resources will be accumulated in lead concentrates and spent LABs,and the amount of redundancy in 2030 will reach 2.2~3.8 times of the lead in-use stocks.