End Of Life Vehicle Recycling

Question 1

Why should we recycle automobiles?

Answer 1

~ 45 million ELVs annually => ~ 30-40 million tons of metal waste. Benefits of recycling ELVs:

• Solution to the disposal problems
• Protection of the environment (less landfilling)
• Recovery of valuable materials
• Reusable parts

Question 2

What can be recycled from ELVs?

Answer 2

Loads of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Some fluids can be filtered and reused. Glass, battery, and electrical parts. However, 20 - 25 % ASR, which is usually discarded/landfilled or burnt.

Question 3

What are the different steps for automobile recycling in order to recover the main engineering materials?

Answer 3

• Depollution: fluids, battery, airbags, etc.
• Dismantling: engine, windows, alternator, spare parts, etc.
• Compacting and shredding of the car hulk
• Separation of shredded pieces through air classifier (=> light ASR), magnetic drum (=> ferrous metal), and non-ferrous metal separator (=> non-ferrous metal + heavy ASR)

Question 4

What are the main challenges in automobile recycling?

Answer 4

• Differentiation of different polymers => low recycling rate, most of them are therefore burnt for energy recovery (e.g. ASR)
• Composite materials (fibre reinforced plastics) are not recycled at all, b/c of difficulty
• Minor and scarce metals not recovered
• Other substances, e.g. glass, have a low recovery rate
• Recycling of EVs hasn’t really started

Question 5

Summarise the Dutch practice in ELV recycling. What’s ARN’s role?

Answer 5

ARN ensures that the governmental law, regarding ELVs, is maintained. Core process: initiating, informing, facilitating, reporting.

Dutch recovery route:

1. Deregistration, at the car dismantling company
2. Dismantling, at the car dismantling company
3. Shredder company
4. Post shredder technology (PST) facility

Question 6

Main message from EU directive, regarding ELV recycling

Answer 6

2006: 85 % reuse and recovery (80 % reuse and recycling, 5 % energy recovery)
2015: 95 % reuse and recovery (85 % reuse and recycling, 10 % energy recovery)

Question 7

How will the design enhance the materials recovery of ELVs?

Answer 7

Possible to design in a way which makes the product easier to recycle. E.g. by material choice (such as recyclable plastics), or clever engineering for easier/quicker dismantling.

Question 8

How is ASR generally treated in current practice, and what are the future treatment options?

Answer 8

Auto Shredder Residue is mainly used for three things:

• As fuels for blast furnace (BF) and EAF ironmaking
• Combustion and melting in stoker furnace
• Rotary kiln processing (pyrolysis, generation of fuels and non-ferrous metals)

Question 9

Briefly describe Volkswagens SiCon process fo ASR treatment

Answer 9

After the regular dismantling and shredding, the VW SiCon only treats the ASR. Firstly, crushing ASR into smaller pieces, then filtering of sand, glass, and rust particles. Then suction of fibres (textiles), ideally leaving polymer granulate for energy recovery.

Question 10

What are the challenging issues in treatment of ASR?

Answer 10

• The materials have become more diversified due to employment of lightweight materials
• ASR has high calorific value and ash content, and nonsegregable fine particles
• Heavy metals and flame retardants with persistent organic pollutants (POPs), often remain in ASR => may induce unintentional generation of POPs during the thermal treatment processes