Automotive shredder residue

MIXED COMBUSTION OF AUTOMOTIVE SHREDDER RESIDUES WITH MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE A SOUND ROUTE TO ENERGY RECOVERY FROM END OF LIFE VEHICLES... 

Automotive Engineering 102, No.8, Aug. 1994, p.29-31 AUTOMOTIVE SHREDDER RESIDUE THREE RECOVERY CHOICES... 

Waste from the automotive industry, particularly from end-of-life-vehicles (ELV), has been identified by the E.U. as another priority waste stream. After dismantling larger parts suitable for mechanical recycling, the vehicle is shredded, the metal fraction (about 75%) is removed, and the remaining residue is known as automotive shredder residue (ASR),... 

The Home Appliances Recycling Law came into full force in 2001 and is to be revised within a few years. In such processes, not only the plastic cases, but also printed circuit boards are recycled, the Law for Recycling End-of-Life Vehicles passed through the Parliament, 2002. Clearly this law should promote the recycling of automotive shredder residue. 

Though numerous types of plastics materials are presently used for automotive applications, future vehicles will probably use fewer resin variables. This consolidation trend is well underway and is a result of postconsumer recycling requirements (see Ghapter 6), which increasingly emphasize the use of only a few families of materials. Auto manufacturers will rely primarily on four key resin families for their plastics applications polyolefins, polyamides, polyurethanes, and styrenics. The future use of PVC for automotive applications is uncertain due to pressure of environmental groups who assert that the resin contaminates automotive shredder residue with chlorine. 

How reqrclahle is the formulation In many cases, a compound simply may not be easily recyclable using the current material-recovery infrastructure, even for parts that are well labeled with the codes that identify their mineral or fiber content Fossil-fuel cost pressures and environmental pressures are only starting to provide the necessary impetus for the greater recovery of filled or reinforced plastic products when their lifetimes are complete Fortunately for POs, a basic recycling infrastructure already exists, and these materials comprise a family of plastics that is readily and heavily recycled into other products. This makes the filler/fiber content a less complicating factor for recovering POs from automotive shredder residue or consumer recydate... 

A particular type of cupola, named the FAR furnace, has been developed in Brazil, that allows the melting of a conventional charge using tyres and plastic pieces (automotive shredder residue - ASR, fluff, etc.), mixed with second rate coke. The cupola structure is totally different from the conventional one. Only the metallic charge enters from the top. The solid fuel is fed in fi-om the side, so that it reaches the hot zone very quickly. Here hydrocarbons are cracked and combusted. 

Selective dissolution is receiving renewed attention as a means to tackle complex waste not suited for density separation or IR-methods such as automotive shredder residue (ASR) and some municipal solid waste (MSW) streams. 

Due to its sensitivity to contamination from other polymers and from impurities, solvolysis will most likely find application within well-defined product areas with efficient collection and sorting infirastructures. Thermolysis, on the other hand, shows high potential for treating mixed plastics waste such as municipal solid waste and automotive shredder residue which otherwise would go to landfill. Not all thermolytic processes are suited for the generation of new polymers, and a certain amount of the oils, gases and solid residues from these processes is used to replace fuel. 

More than 90% of the total number of used cars are shredded for recovery and disposal of their material constituents [7]. Each recycled automobile leaves around a hundred kilograms of Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR). This... 

Automotive shredder residues plastics, rubber, textiles, cardboard 15-24%... 

The automotive plastics that are not reused in the form of resalable parts end up in an industrial waste stream from the automobile shredders called automotive shredder residue (ASR) [45], ASR contains residual ferrous and nonferrous... 

Table 14.8 Representative Composition of Automotive Shredder Residue...

Additional studies have examined the co-combustion of automotive shredder residue [47, 48, 111], electrical and electronic plastics [141-144], and building insulation foam [144] with municipal solid waste. Co-combustion of these plastics for energy production can also be carried out in compliance with U.S. and German waste-to-energy plant regulations in modem municipal solid waste combustors. 

Automotive Shredder Residue Its Application in Steel Mill Blast Furnaces—A Preliminary Analysis Prepared for the American Plastics Council and the Environmental and Plastics Industry Council of CPIA, Competitive Analysis Centre, Inc., Ontario, Canada, October 1997. 

Argonne National Laboratory has a pilot facility for investigation of recycling from automotive shredder residue. It includes a mechanical separation facility and a wet-density/ froth-flotation separation facility. ... 

Winslow, G. and T. Adams, Recycling Automotive Shredder Residue and Plastics Using Thermal Depolymerization Process, GPEC 2004, SPE, 2004, U.S. DOE, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, http //www.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/alm 04/6c daniels.pdf. 

Xanthos and co-workers [12] did some research in which LDPE was melt blended with either automotive shredder residue, carpet hacking residue or mixtures of the two and prototype blocks were intrusion moulded from them. These blocks were evaluated for use as a wood substitute for the building industry by conducting tests to determine their short-term and long-term mechanical properties, flammability, thermal conductivity and heavy metal and total organic carbon leaching behaviour. The performance of these prototypes was compared with that of wood and the composites containing carpet residue were found to be favourable as replacements for wood thermal barrier components in a steel-based stud assembly. 

In Prance, Galloo Plastics, the Galloo Group s recycling unit, is able to accept raw automotive shredder residue and derive from it finished plastic compounds such as black PP pellets which are supplied to automotive markets. 

Additionally in-put values were changed to allow examination of two hypothetical cases (iv) plastic recovery from automotive shredder residue, or fluff, and (v) a case involving depolymerisation of scrap polyolefins by as yet undefined process technology. 

In the absence of cost-effective sortation/reclamation technologies, pyrolytic processes are potentially applicable to commingled streams containing mostly hydrocarbon polymers. Therefore, in principle, pyrolytic processes may be applicable to Municipal Solid Waste tailings , automotive shredder residue fluff, and perhaps mixed textiles. However, the limitations imposed by PVC contamination and other impurities will significantly limit the applicability of a specific process or require an additional pretreatment step. 

Thus, solvolysis, as the predominant conversion route for step-growth plastics, is, in principle, applicable to only 20% of all plastics sold in the U.S. Step growth polymers are predominant in at least three critical waste feedstocks containining mixed plastics for which generic separation is either difficult or non-economic these streams identified in our earlier studies, [1], include automotive shredder residue (e.g. PUR, SMC, PET, Nylons), textile/carpets (e.g. polyesters, nylons) and post-consumer plastics obtained from Municipal Solid Waste, MSW (e.g. PET, PE, PVC). 

Mark, F.E., Fisher, M.M., Smith, K.A. Energy recovery from automotive shredder residue through co-combustion with municipal solid waste. In Mark, F.E., Fisher, M.M., Smith, K.A. (eds.) Energy Recovery from Automotive Shredder Residue, pp. 158-175. Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME), Brussels (1998)... 

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