Greenwire: Doe Run Co. officials confirmed that they have successfully tested an environmentally friendly technology to produce lead, which could spell the end of smelting operations at the plant.
The new technology uses a wet chemical process rather than the heat-based smelting. Officials say it could help them improve recovery rates of lead while also cutting 99 percent of their current land, air and water pollution releases.
The company has been beset by complaints about its emissions of lead and sulfur dioxide from plants in Missouri and La Oroya, Peru. The company faced serious questions about its ability to operate under tighter emissions restrictions in the United States, but the new process could allow them to produce lead while meeting those standards.
The chemical process, known as FLUBOR, represents the end of a $30 million quest to find a new way to produce lead. The technology was patented by Italian engineering company Engitec and is easier to use to produce copper. While also cutting on emissions, the process depends on a reusable solution, eliminating the wasteful slag byproduct from smelting.
Doe Run says it will cost between $100 million and $150 million to move the project to a commercial-sized operation. The company was not selected last year for Department of Energy funding and last month applied for a DOE-backed loan. They say increased funding is necessary to move the process forward while meeting high demand for lead, which is used in batteries (Kim McGuire, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 21). – JP