Aqua Metals produces AquaRefined lead

United States – US company Aqua Metals announced that it has produced the first-ever AquaRefined lead at its flagship AquaRefinery in McCarran, Nevada. AquaRefining is a water-based, room-temperature process and is hailed to be ‘the only clean lead recycling method’.

AquaRefining uses an entirely reusable water-based technology to produce ingots of ultrapure lead. Through its own on-site assay, Aqua Metals has verified that the lead produced in the AquaRefining module is over 99.99% pure.

Aqua Metals previously demonstrated the effectiveness of its technology at bench scale, pilot scale and with a single, full-size electrolyser. As a next step, the company will now send its initial production samples to several US battery manufacturing companies – which collectively represent over 50% of US battery production – to allow them to conduct their own assays.

‘This is a major milestone – not just for our company, but for the entire industry,’ comments Dr. Stephen Clarke, chairman and ceo of Aqua Metals. ‘Our commercial-scale AquaRefining modules have the potential to revolutionise lead recycling and make lead-acid batteries the only truly sustainable battery technology. We are confident that our lead products will exceed the most rigorous industry specifications.’

Aqua Metals manufactures AquaRefining modules at its headquarters in Alameda, California. The Company has built and delivered a total of five modules to its Nevada AquaRefinery thus far and currently plans to install and commission a total of 16 modules for initial production capacity of 80 metric tonnes of lead per day.

The company anticipates that the Nevada AquaRefinery will reach its initial production capacity within the coming months.