Consumption , lead

Secondary Lead. The emphasis in technological development for the lead industry in the 1990s is on secondary or recycled lead. Recovery from scrap is an important source for the lead demands of the United States and the test of the world. In the United States, over 70% of the lead requirements are satisfied by recycled lead products. The ratio of secondary to primary lead increases with increasing lead consumption for batteries. WeU-organized collecting channels are requited for a stable future for lead (see BATTERIES, SECONDARY CELLS Recycling NONFERROUS METALS). 

Lead sheet is used in the building industry throughout continental Europe and to a lesser extent Australia, but hardly at all in the USA. Other aspects of lead consumption follow the same general trends worldwide. 

The domestic use pattern for lead in 1990 was as follows lead-acid storage batteries, used for motor vehicles, motive power, and emergency back-up power, accounted for 80% of total lead consumption ammunition, bearing metals, brass and bronze, cable covering, extruded products, sheet lead, and solder, represented 12.4% the remaining 7.6% was used for ceramics, type metal, ballast or weights, tubes or containers, oxides, and gasoline additives (USDOC 1992). 

Hirao Y, Mabuchi H, Fukuda E, et al. 1986. Lead isotope ratios in Tokyo Bay sediments and the implications in the lead consumption of Japanese industries. Geochemical Journal 20 1-15. 

Stanek K, Manton W, Angle C, et al. 1998. Lead consumption of 18- to 36-month-old children as determined from duplicate diet collections nutrient intakes, blood lead levels, and effects on growth. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 98(2) 155-158. 

About 4 million tons of lead are refined annually worldwide (Table 4.1). Domestic lead consumption is 1.3 million tons annually, of which about half is used in storage battery manufacture... 

Fig. 2. Relation between lead consumption by the engine and hydrocarbon removal (O lead free A 0.5, 1.5, 3 g Pb/gal). [From Weaver (79).] (Reprinted with permission of the Society of Automotive Engineers.)...

Flegal AR, Coale KH. 1989. Trends in lead concentrations in major U.S. rivers and their relation to historical changes in gasoline-lead consumption. Water Res Bull 25 1275-1277. 

Historically, in the United States, the consumption of lead in glasses and ceramics has been approximately 30,000-50,000 metric tons per year, which represents 2-3% of the total U.S. annual lead consumption [29], If storage battery usage is not included in the annual total, as this product category represents over 86% of U.S. lead consumption annually, then glasses and ceramics represent 13-22% of the remaining demand for lead in the United States. 

Year Production of Refined Lead Consumption of Refined Lead Consumption of Lead for Accumulators... 

France has not issued a specific law to apply EC Directive 157/91 yet for the moment a partly hybrid collection system controlled by main commercial operators is in place. The annual lead consumption for batteries is about 160,000 tons with a collection rate of 70%. 

What are some of the problems associated with lead consumption by children ... 

Figure 2 - Lead Consumption in Batteries and Volume of Lead Recycled (Source ILZSG, CHR Metals)...

Lead acid batteries are the bright spot in lead product development. Since 1970, the percentage of the lead market occupied by lead acid batteries has risen from 28% in 1960 to over 73% in 1999. The lead market has risen primarily as a result of the dramatic increase in production of lead acid batteries even as other lead products declined or disappeared. The lead consumption has risen from 3,260,000 tons in 1960 to over 6,000,000 tons in 1997. Battery usage increased from just under 1,000,000 tons to 4,400,000 tons per year over the same period. The lead acid battery is readily packaged for recycling and the amount of recycled lead production increased dramatically from under 1,000,000 tons in 1960 to over 3,000,000 tons in 1999. 

Refined lead is produced from both primary and secondary sources. Primary lead is that produced from mined ores, whilst secondary lead results from recycled materials such as battery plates and lead pipes. Recycled lead currently accounts for 14% of the world s production of refined lead (Table 1.2, cf. Table 1.1). The consumption of lead is concentrated primarily in only eight countries (Table 1.3). Storage batteries currently account for about half of the refined lead consumption in the western world (Table 1.4), whilst the production of tetraalkyllead, a petrol additive which reduces engine knock, accounts for about 10% of consumption. 

Total world lead consumption and mine production since 1970 are illustrated in Figure 1.1 and 2005 production figures are given in Table 1.2. 

As indicated in Chapter 1, global lead consumption from secondary sources approached four million tonnes per year in 2005, or 60 per cent of total world consumption. Around 20 per cent of world consumption is for uses where recycling is difficult, such as for plastics stabilisers, for TV tube glass, for shot and ammunition. Of the remainder, ten per cent is used for rolled or extruded alloys and cable sheathing, which have long-term applications, and 70 per cent is used for batteries. Recyclable lead therefore is predominantly from used automotive batteries, with some from reclaimed sheet, cable sheathing and other metallic scrap. In addition there are various residues, drosses and flue dusts containing lead. 

After World War I, demand for lead increased considerably as motorized vehicles, automobiles and trucks had to be equipped with batteries for SLI. In addition, terne metal for gasoline tanks increased lead consumption. Terne metal is made of steel sheet, coated on both sides with a terne alloy, 80% lead and 20% tin. 

Figure 43.6 shows how the use of lead for storage batteries increased during the 20 year period from 1975 to 1994. This indicates a raised use of automobiles and other vehicles. In spite of that the usage of lead in many other applications has decreased as a result of environmental pressure. This is clearly manifested in the reduced shares of lead in petrol and in sheathed cables. Environmental actions have not resulted in decreased lead consumption but rather in a changed pattern, exemplified by the fact that, of all the lead used in the USA in 2001,96% was for storage batteries. 

Lead production—mining, milling, smelting, refining—in the United States has historically occurred in areas relatively remote from points of lead consumption (NAS/NRC, 1993 U.S. EPA, 1986, 2006 Nriagu and Pacyna, 1988 McCord, 1953 Murray, 1926). This particularly applies to consumption of lead in urbanized, heavily populated areas for diverse purposes such as lead for paint pigments, lead used in the production of... 

The basis of this rise was both demand via consumption and newly discovered Western U.S. lead belts, particularly those in the Inter-Rocky Mountain West. Lead consumption grew across a number of categories, e.g., lead paint and lead plumbing, while the entry of Western lead became economically feasible and highly competitive for commodity production and marketing through the growth of the U.S. railroad system, particularly west of the Mississippi River. 

The relative amounts of exports and imports across the years affected the total amounts of lead available for domestic consumption, and both categories have varied considerably. Imports for approximately the first 40 years of the twentieth century were only a fraction of exports, indicating that domestic production for these four decades commonly exceeded domestic consumption requirements. This direction in lead s international trade reversed itself around the outbreak of World War II (WWII). At that point, domestic production began to fall short of annual lead consumption requirements and the shortfall was made up by imports. 

MODERN ERA LEAD CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND ELSEWHERE... 

Limited data exist for U.S. lead consumption during the nineteenth century or before. Specifically, annual U.S. domestic lead consumption data are not available for years prior to 1887. Table 3.1 provided estimates of domestic... 

World lead consumption figures for the period 1891 — 1900, figures which include those of the United States, were estimates provided by The Metallgesellschaft, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany and tabulated in the USGS Mineral Resources of the United States annual document for the calendar year 1900. The world lead consumption rates (MT) per year were ... 

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