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The goal of this research was to determine and quantify today's actual end-of-life vehicle disposition rates based on their age and material content. The current facts and status of today's automotive recycling industry were sought. Disposition rates and material trends were projected using adjusted ELV age data from Duranceau and Linden's 1999 research and average materials content data from open-sources. End-of-life vehicle age and population data adjustments were used to estimate representative material compositions for the US and Canadian ELV fleet. The disposition rates were broken down by percentages of (1) part weight reused, (2) part weight remanufactured, (3) part weight recycled pre-shredder, (4) weight of recovered fluids, and (5) weight of metals recycled post shredder. The 86.3% percent material recovery established in this study was compared to the 84% reported in Paul's 2001.

Approximately 20 percent by weight of each end of life automobile ends up in a waste stream known as shredder residue (SR) that goes to disposal into a land fill. When an automobile reaches the end of its useful life it enters a complex infrastructure designed to recover usable parts and materials of value, primarily the ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The remaining material, a mixture of glass, rubber, plastics and foam becomes part of SR. Based on earlier research, a new recycling process has been identified that can convert the organic material in this waste stream into a fuel oil. The Thermal Conversion Process (TCP) developed by Changing World Technologies (CWT) may make it possible to convert SR into useful products. The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) and its partners are investigating the capability of the TCP to process SR.

Polyurethane (PU) foams were recovered from European and U.S. shredder residues, which typically come from automobiles and other sources of durable goods, such as appliances, furniture, construction, etc. PU foams were characterized and glycolyzed. Glycolysis products were successfully treated for the removal of select substances of concern, heavy metals, and bromine-containing compounds and propoxylated into polyols for polyurethanes with 171 and 355 average equivalent weights. Properties of the glycolysis product and corresponding propoxylated polyols were evaluated, including their molecular weight distribution via gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The polydispersity index decreased from 5.8 to 2.1 by reaction of glycolysis product with 50 wt% of propylene oxide based on a total amount of the initiator. The recycled polyol of an average equivalent weight of 171 was evaluated in rigid polyurethane and urethane-modified isocyanurate foam formulations.

Each year approximately 12 million automobiles reach the end of their useful life and enter a complex infrastructure designed to recover usable parts and materials of value (primarily the ferrous and nonferrous metals). The remaining material, a mixture of glass, rubber, plastics, foam, and dirt, is referred to as shredder residue (SR) and is currently sent to landfills for disposal. However, a new Thermal Conversion Process (TCP) developed by Changing World Technologies may make it possible to convert this waste into a light hydrocarbon oil. TCP is a new technology under investigation by the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) and its partners. This process converts hydrocarbons and other organic materials into marketable oils and specialty chemicals for potential industrial and commercial use. Early research has demonstrated the ability to take SR and convert it into a light hydrocarbon oil, fuel gas, and carbon.

In previous projects, the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) and Salyp N.V. have demonstrated the ability to separate plastics, foams, ferrous metals, and non-ferrous metals from shredder residue using the Salyp recovery process. Salyp's recovery process consists of a number of different stages, which are discussed in a previous SAE paper by the VRP and Salyp1. These include a sized-based material separation, a foam cleaning system, additional material separation based on material type, etc. However, during the previous project, the potential impact of the process on the environment via air emissions, waste emissions, or in terms of energy consumption were not determined. Understanding the overall environmental impact of this recycling process is important. Therefore, the VRP concluded that a life cycle approach was necessary to investigate the energy and specific environmental impacts of this technology.

Tons of shredder residue (SR), a complex mixture of plastics, foams, rubber, metals, and glass, are generated each year as a by-product from the recycling of obsolete vehicles. The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP), along with our CRADA partners, is investigating ways to enable the optimum recovery and recycling of these materials. This study investigates the feasibility of recycling (PU) foam using a new chemical process by glycolysing [1, 2] two types of polyurethane (PU) foams, “dirty” and “clean”, which were recovered from SR via an industrial scale process specifically designed to separate PU foams from SR [3, 4]. In stage one of this process, the polyurethane foam is subjected to glycolysis, followed by filtration of the liquid glycolyzed product. In stage two, the glycolyzed products are used as initiators in reaction with propylene oxide to prepare novel polyurethane polyols.

Shredder residue is a complex mix of many different materials that includes plastics, rubber, polyurethane (PU) foams, glass, metals and other materials such as rocks and dirt. The metal recyclers create this shredder residue mix as part of a recycling process to recover metals. The actual input stream for metal recycling is end-of-life automobiles, white goods and a variety of other metal-intensive parts including industrial scrap waste. This shredder residue is currently landfilled, and the European Union has implemented laws to reduce the amount of shredder residue from automobiles that can go into landfills. The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) is working with different collaborators to evaluate different technologies, including automated plastic recovery, as a means to reduce the amount of plastics that go to landfill in shredder residue.

The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) initiated feasibility studies to evaluate the use of automated separation processes to recover plastics and polyurethane (PU) foams from shredder residue. One of the prevailing issues impeding the commercial success of these processes is contamination of the shredder materials. The contaminants include dirt, oils, glass, metal fines, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals. The presence of PCBs and heavy metals was determined in a number of mixed plastics and PU foam samples separated using an automated separation process. An aqueous cleaning approach was investigated using various commercial surfactants to determine their effectiveness for removing oils, PCBs, and heavy metals. Mass balances of processed and cleaned materials were calculated to determine the cleaning efficiencies of the various surfactants.

The United States Council of Automotive Research (USCAR) under the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) along with our collaborators Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), American Plastic Council (APC) and the Association of Plastic Manufactures in Europe (APME) has been conducting research on automated recovery of plastics from shredder residue. A Belgium company Salyp NV located in Ypres, Belgium has been contracted by the VRP to demonstrate a recovery process that can separate several plastic types including polyurethane foam out of the shredder residue waste stream. One hundred metric tons of shredder residue was supplied from three different metal recycling companies (shredders) including a US metal recycler as well as two different European metal recyclers/shredders. This shredder residue was evaluated and processed by Salyp. This paper explains the separation processes along with processing efficiencies, material characterization, mass balances and the amount of plastics recovered.

A research project to determine the feasibility of utilizing polyethylene post-consumer automotive fuel tanks as a source of raw material was funded by Visteon, ExxonMobil, and was conducted by Brooks Associates. Brooks Associates launched this project in the last quarter of 2000 to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing high-density polyethylene (HDPE) post-consumer automotive fuel tanks in combination with wood fiber to create a new material suitable as an automotive substrate. The concept for the project was based on proven technology that processes wood into fiber utilizing steam explosion. The steam explosion process was commercialized to form wood fiber as a raw material for ‘Masonite’. The product of the explosion process has also been made into a mat for further processing. This mat process is generally referred to as the ‘air-lay’ process.