ACME opens its doors to the world's lead industry and to a greener future for lead recycling

TAIPEI, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Leading Taiwanese lead recycler ACME Metal Enterprise, based in the capital Taipei, hosted an open day for key global industry players to show ACE Green Recycling’s revolutionary GreenLead™ process in action. Around 30 visitors were shown the world’s first full deployment of this technology, many of whom remarked on the total absence of noise, smells, and dust – something unthinkable in a traditional smelter.

ACE’s technology completely replaces the smelting stage of lead recycling with a room temperature hydrometallurgical process which is fully electrified and produces zero Scope 1 emissions. This is in stark contrast to conventional furnace smelting that involves high temperatures, uses copious fossil fuels, and creates fumes and dust that must be captured in baghouses to avoid it being emitted to the environment.

ACME is Taiwan’s leading lead recycler, with over 40 years of successful operation. Through its partnership with ACE, ACME plans to set up a plant to recycle 20,000 metric tonnes per year of lead batteries to produce about 12,000 metric tonnes of environmentally friendly GreenLead™, generating nearly USD 30 million in annual revenue for the Taiwanese company. Overtime, ACME plans to become one of the largest producers of emissions-free lead and expand operations across Asia Pacific.

The distinguished visitors from Europe, USA and Asia were drawn from other lead producers, major trading houses, engineering consultancies and investors, who were impressed by the high levels of process automation and intentional simplicity of the set up – the magic is in the chemistry, not the engineering, which has been kept as straightforward as possible to minimise costs and maximise reliability. There was universal agreement among the visitors that they felt that they’d witnessed the likely future of global lead recycling.

This collaboration with ACME demonstrates ACE’s deep commitment to the battery market. Sales of GreenLead™ from ACME’s facility will reach the key markets of Taiwan region and Japan, including leading battery OEMs across Asia.

ACE is a market leader in both lead and lithium-ion battery recycling technologies and is partnering with companies worldwide to help them set up environmentally friendly battery recycling facilities. The company has a team of over 70 people and is dual headquartered in the US and Singapore.