ILA member Boliden invests SEK 80 million in new plant at lead smelter to reduce emissions

Boliden has been creating value from waste for more than 90 years. Its focus on minimising its environmental impact while using all resources as efficiently as possible has been driven by innovation, developed in collaboration with Nordic technology and engineering companies.

Its Bergsöe site in Landskrona is the Nordic region’s only secondary smelter for lead and one of Europe’s biggest recyclers of used lead batteries. The company now plans to add a desulphurisation plant for lead paste at the smelter. The SEK 80 million plant will reduce sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and have a knock-on effect by reducing waste and its resulting transport needs.

As a costly waste product to regulate, SO₂ emissions management is a focus area for battery recyclers with one answer being to capture and valorise it instead. Sulphur is also a desirable by-product of process engineering – it can be used in steel to increase its machinability, in agricultural fertilisers and other chemical intermediates such as rubber. As well as the positive environmental impact, the removed SO₂ can create a valuable waste product and is therefore also an important economic move.

“We are delighted that we can now start this project, which takes us another step towards our vision to be the most sustainable recycling facility for used lead batteries in Europe”, says Fredrik Kanth, General Manager, Bergsöe.

The technology has been proven and is used as a standard for how lead batteries should be recycled in the best possible way from an environmental perspective and ensures the investment is in line with Boliden’s vision. The goal is for the new facility to be commissioned in the autumn of 2023.

Boliden has been valorising waste innovatively in other areas successfully – in 2019 it added a plastic separation plant to the Bergsöe site which recycles plastic from lead battery casings and at the same time improves process efficiency by de-bottlenecking lead production from used batteries. 2020 was the first full year of operation for plastic separation – this investment reduced annual emissions by around 10,000 metric tons of CO₂ alone.

Boliden also provides surplus heat from its production sites to the Swedish Landskrona municipality’s district heating system, which covers the annual heating needs of around 2,000 homes.

Every year, Boliden recovers lead from 4 million used car batteries and processes around 70,000 tonnes. At least 70% of the lead produced from recycling these is sold to the battery industry in Europe where it is used again. As lead is a finite resource which is fully recyclable, Bergsöe is an important driver of Europe’s circular economy.

Watch Boliden’s video for more information on sustainable lead recovery here.