How to dispose a electrolyte?
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ISSN: 2319-8753

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science,

Engineering and Technology

(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 2, Issue 11, November 2013

Copyright to IJIRSET www.ijirset.com 6053

Disposal of Waste Battery Electrolyte by

Neutralization, Precipitation and

Decantation Process on Industrial Scale

Nitin Motiram Jadhav1

, Vinod Nayak 2

M.Sc. Student of chemistry from Karnataka state Open University, Karwar-581400, Karnataka, India 1

Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Kaiga Plant, Karwar-581400, Karnataka, India 2

Abstract: The battery electrolyte which contain heavy metals such as lead, zinc are neutralized by

adding sodium hydroxide and depending upon cumulative concentration of lead and zinc and other

heavy metals ; sulphide ions are introduced equal to cumulative concentration of all lead and zinc

and other heavy metals. The lead, zinc and other heavy metals form metal sulphide which are

generally very insoluble and gets precipitated which can be very easily removed by settling them at

bottom and followed by decantation process.

Keywords: Waste battery Electrolyte, Heavy metal, Neutralization [1], Precipitation [2],

Decantation [3], Pollution control, Waste management.

I. INTRODUCTION

In many industries lead acid battery is used for uninterrupted power supply sources. These batteries

contain sulphuric acid as electrolyte. Due to operational uses, periodically battery electrolytes are

being removed from batteries. These waste battery electrolyte contain heavy metals such as lead,

zinc, chromium etc. These heavy metals can cause serious environmental hazards due to their high

bio specificity, toxicity and mobility. These heavy metals need to be removed before disposal.

Also the pH of electrolyte is <1.0 and need to be neutralized before disposal. These heavy metals

can be removed by charcoal adsorption method but this method produces large quantity of post

disposal poisonous charcoal waste, which is difficult to handle.

The chemical precipitation technique was studied on laboratory basis and its practical applicability

on large industrial scale was applied which show very good results. And it is concluded that this is

the best method technique due to high removal capacity, low cost, easy availability, less operation

difficulties and there is no post disposal wastage generation as observed in charcoal adsorption

method [4].

II PROCEDURE EXTRACT

The heavy metals content present in the wastewater can be removed effectively to acceptable levels

by introducing ions such as hydroxide, sulphide, sulphate and carbonate etc. which convert soluble

heavy metal ion in to insoluble form and get precipitated at the bottom. As per literature, solubility

of metal sulphide is very low compare to hydroxide and which cause lower residual metal

concentration in treated waste water. Therefore sulphide ion salt (sodium sulphide) is decided to

use for heavy metal precipitation process in battery electrolyte