To make any kind of profit from battery reuse, you need to know the chemical composition of the materials used for making rechargeable cells. You also need to know how to recycle these materials into new products.
The materials inside a battery may be hazardous to your health if left out in the open. In order to recycle them properly, they must be separated into their individual elements.
These elements can then be used in other processes where they can create value. Recycling these materials is an important part of creating wealth from waste.
If you want to start a profitable recycling business from home, read this guide first.
You can recycle old car tires into new ones. They can also be used as firewood. But before doing so, check if they are usable. Otherwise, you may end up losing money.
Steps to Make Money Recycling Batteries
You may not know it, but there are lots of people who are selling recycled battery packs online. In addition, if you’re willing to put in the work, you can also find a lot of places where you can buy them wholesale. So what do you think? Are you interested in buying recycled battery packs?
If you want to learn how to make extra cash by selling used car battery packs, you can either buy them from someone who has some extra packs lying around or you can go through an intermediary company like eBay or Amazon.
Suggested Read: Reusing Business Ideas With Low Capital
Batteries are among the most common items that people throw away. Recyclers who buy them from consumers usually sell them for less than they paid for them. To be able to earn money by selling recyclable materials, you must invest in equipment, know how to extract the materials, and comply with environmental regulations.
You need to know the procedures for battery waste management before deciding where to start making money from recycled batteries.
How Batteries Are Recycled?
Recycled battery materials are used for new products. A brief explanation of the processes involved will help you understand how to earn from them.
Lead Acid Batteries
Automotive batteries are mostly made of Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) cells. These Li-ion cells can be recycled just like any other type of cell phone battery. They are also known as lithium-ion batteries because they contain Lithium ions. The process of recycling them is similar to the one used to recycle regular rechargeable batteries.
The only difference is that Li-ion batteries do not require special equipment to break them apart. You can simply take your old Li-ion batteries to any local recycling center and ask them to dispose of them for you.
Melt the metal and its components in a crucible, then remove the impurities by filtering and purifying them. Finally, cast these metals into molds and sell them to make batteries.
Neutralizing sulphuric acids into sodium salts is one way to use them safely.
Alkaline Batteries
To make any kind of profit from recycling alkalines, you need to mechanically separate their different parts – zinc and manganese, etc. For example, if you want to recycle aluminum cans, you must first remove them from the cardboard box they came in.
Nickel Cadmium Batteries
To recycle used NiCd batteries, you must first remove the battery casing and separator paper. Then, you need to sort out the metal parts from the plastics. These materials are then sold to different industries.
Lithium Batteries
The battery is shredded mechanically. The contents are immersed in caustic waters to obtain ferrous and non-iron metals. The clean scraps are then sent to steel mills. After the filtration of the solutions, the resulting slag is used to produce a graphite cake.
Some of the graphite is reused along with cobalt. The Lithium in the solutions is converted to Lithionium Chloride. In this way, one can provide these materials to the industries and earn money by selling them back to the battery manufacturers.
Nickel Metal Hydrite Batteries
Before they’re dried, the batteries are taken out of their packaging and any remaining plastic is removed. They’re then dried and moisture is removed before going into the recycling stream.
Lithium-Ion Batteries
These batteries are made using an advanced technology called “oxygen-free” processing. They’re produced from the main components, namely cobalt and lithium salts, plastics, stainless steel, metals, and aluminum. You may be able to profit from them.
Here you have to take off the plastic first. Then you dry out the cells to get the metal inside them. You can then trade those metals for industrial goods. By doing so, you will start learning how to make cash-recycling batteries.
Mercury Batteries
You must follow a controlled process to extract the heavy metals from the used lithium-ion cells. Then, you have to sell these metal-rich materials in the industrial marketplace.
Zinc carbon batteries and zinc air batteries
Both these types of rechargeable batteries are recycled in the same manner as an alkaline battery, where high temperatures are used to melt the metals so they can be melted down into metal bars for use in making new products.
How to Start a Battery Recycling Plant?
Before starting any business, you need to figure out what type of product you’re going to offer. If you plan to start a small business, you can get started by selling recycled products to local stores.
But to recycle your own battery, you have to go through a lot of steps. First of all, you need to make a thorough study of the process and form of your company. Register yourself with the local government authority. Obtain permission from the Environmental department, as these cells contain harmful chemicals that can harm the surroundings.
The most important thing is that you must know the steps of battery reclamation. If you need help, you can hire a pro, but it is extremely essential for you to know the methods of battery reclaiming if you want to earn some cash from recycled batteries.
For the battery recycling facility, you need to have a place where you can store the used cells and keep them at an appropriate temperature for their reclamation.
Read: How to start an e-waste recycling business
To collect and store batteries, you need a battery room. And for battery disposal, you need certain machinery to recycle batteries.
To recycle batteries for use in new products, you need machinery like these.
- A battery-cutting machine with an acidic solution facility
- Plastic Crusher
- Furnaces with proper pollution controls
- Lead refining Furnace
- Lead Alloying Furnace
- Fugitive Emission Controls Systems (FECS) for refining and alloying furnaces
- Ingot caster to cast the molten metal.
Lead-acid cells (the most commonly used kind) are made up of two plates separated by an electrolyte. When current passes through them, they produce electricity and water.
Recycled materials go through five stages before they’re ready for use again.
- A collection of batteries and putting them in the right place for recharging.
- Crushing the battery
- Sort out heavy metal pollution, and plastic waste, and remove toxins.
- Separating the polypropylene from its metal components
- Ores are mined for metals.
You may want to read: How to start waste plastic recycling plant business
Conclusions: If you wish to earn cash recycling old car batteries, then you must have enough capital. Around fifteen to twenty percent should be put into the equipment and installation. Afterward, it is important to pay the rental fee of the place, maintain the machine, pay the salary and wages, etc.
This is a fairly high-level business, however, if you know what you’re doing, your profits can also be very high. We hope, the information about how to recycle old car batteries will assist you to build your own battery recycling plant.
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