Feasibility study for an incentive system to establish a local take-back, repair and reuse center for battery storage in Nigeria

Africa is flooded with billions of batteries of all kinds. Batteries are mainly used in the energy sector and will also be used in the automotive sector in the future. Although the demand for more powerful lithium batteries is increasing, the well-known lead-acid batteries are also experiencing a boom because they are still significantly cheaper than lithium-based electricity storage systems in terms of their storage capacity. They are also extremely robust, easy to manufacture and have a high residual value after their life cycle due to the materials used.

However, batteries in Africa are rarely recycled properly. This starts with collecting and recording. Due to the high lead value, dealers scour the country for lead-acid batteries and usually simply dump the sulphuric acid on site. As a result, lead sludge, the lead-containing sediment from old batteries, gets onto and into the ground and thus into the groundwater. Some of the lead is recovered in improper lead smelters or by informal smelting. These processes are associated with extreme pollution of the environment, with toxins escaping: taking Nigeria as an example, German media reported on fatal cases in 2018 and 2019 in connection with the improper recycling of (energy) storage systems.