Battery?

[ionbeam]

Last time the used lead topic came up I wrote to YUASA and asked them about the lead used in the batteries and about using recycled lead. YUASA says that there is essentially no difference in the quality of the lead that goes in batteries regardless of the source and regardless of the place of manufacture.

When a battery manufacturer uses better than 99.99% pure lead it doesn't matter what the source is since the lead is highly processed to get it to this purity. As Ross mentioned, new lead is a huge messy mix that contains many different elements and contaminates which require multiple processing steps to purify the lead, whereas recycled lead only requires a few steps to produce pure lead paste. What does the battery manufacturer do with the pure lead? They add contaminants(!) like antimony, calcium, tin and selenium because the lead is too soft to support itself and it improves the electrodes in the battery.

[FJRoss]

Last time the used lead topic came up I wrote to YUASA and asked them about the lead used in the batteries and about using recycled lead. YUASA says that there is essentially no difference in the quality of the lead that goes in batteries regardless of the source and regardless of the place of manufacture.

I think that the new=good and recycled=bad notion must come from the old days of using poorly re-refined scrap metal to build rusty Fords (especially back in the '70's). In almost all metal refining industries, the specification for the final product does not differ as a function of the source (ore vs recycle). As mentioned, the lead atoms don't wear out and recycled is chemically indistinguishable from "new".

The thing with steel manufacture is that you start with quite pure iron ore (hematite) with fairly low concentrations of contaminants. If you are starting with recycled metal, the zinc and copper that will be present as a function of the metal source (galvanized metal and electrical components) will cause serious issues with the quality of the final product if not removed completely. You can still produce very good steel from scrap but the process is a little different.

[wheatonFJR]

Last time the used lead topic came up I wrote to YUASA and asked them about the lead used in the batteries and about using recycled lead. YUASA says that there is essentially no difference in the quality of the lead that goes in batteries regardless of the source and regardless of the place of manufacture.

When a battery manufacturer uses better than 99.99% pure lead it doesn't matter what the source is since the lead is highly processed to get it to this purity. As Ross mentioned, new lead is a huge messy mix that contains many different elements and contaminates which require multiple processing steps to purify the lead, whereas recycled lead only requires a few steps to produce pure lead paste. What does the battery manufacturer do with the pure lead? They add contaminants(!) like antimony, calcium, tin and selenium because the lead is too soft to support itself and it improves the electrodes in the battery.

I always feel smarter after reading one of Alan's posts. I'm not smarter, but I feel like I've learned something.

[wpbfjr]

hi,

is there a forum member that sells batteries?

with this crowd, i should specify "new and unopened" m/c for fjr's.

bike effects closed shop oct 2017.

dana