How can we recover all the lead from old car batteries?

[John1397]

Years ago I thought I would take apart a car battery melt all the lead I thought there would be at least 10 or more pounds of lead I only got a little over a pound of lead there was a lot of heavy dirt but applying heat to this material yielded no lead it seems the acid eats or corrodes the lead is there any way to recover all the lead that goes into a new battery from an old one?

 

[sophiecentaur]

Electrolysis has converted the metallic lead to a lead compound (lead sulphate? I think). To get the lead out of that grey goo, you would need an electrolytic cell. Messy business and not to be undertaken without the right safety measures.

 

[phinds]

Years ago I thought I would take apart a car battery melt all the lead I thought there would be at least 10 or more pounds of lead I only got a little over a pound of lead there was a lot of heavy dirt but applying heat to this material yielded no lead it seems the acid eats or corrodes the lead is there any way to recover all the lead that goes into a new battery from an old one?

I once tried to explain to someone why run-on sentences could get to be very hard to follow guess he didn't learn much in what used to be called grammar school could be because he was thinking of something else at the time hard to say don't know what else to think it was a lost cause even though i tried my best maybe could have done better.