Patent ID: 8323595

Claim:
In a low temperature process for recovering high purity litharge PbO from lead acid battery paste, the improvement which comprises the steps of; A) treating spent battery paste containing Pb 3 O 4 , PbSO 4 and Pb(SO 4 ) 4 with an alkali chloride and sulfuric acid; B) treating the product from step A) with soda ash or alkali hydroxide solution to a pH of about 12 to form PbO or PbCO 3 ; C) treating the PbO or PbCO 3 from step B) with a carboxylic acid having 1-3 carbon atoms to form a solution of lead carboxylate; and then D) treating the solution of lead carboxylate with an alkali hydroxide to obtain highly pure litharge PbO or Pb(OH) 2 .