U.S. Government/Industry
Collaboration for Sustainable Endof-Life Vehicle Recycling
Ed Daniels, Director
Energy Systems Division
SAE Government/Industry Meeting
Washington D.C.
April 15, 2007
Outline of Today’s Presentation
„ Overview of ELV Recycling Today--- Typically more than 75% of automotive
materials (primarily metals) are profitably recycled, the balance is commonly
referred to as “automotive” shredder residue
„ Overview of ELV Regulations/Directives--- Europe, Japan, China have adopted
versions of ELV recycle directives, North America has not
„ Overview of the U.S. ELV CRADA Team government/industry partnership--- a
research partnership focused on development and demonstration of technology to
support enhanced sustainable recycling of automotive materials
„ Conclusions--- The changing automotive material mix over the past fifteen years
and evolutionary technology trends relative to automobile architecture for improved
safety and environmental performance will increase the recycling technical
challenge
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Overview of ELV Recycling Today
„ About 35 million vehicles enter the
recycle infrastructure each year:
– ~13 million; N. America
– ~11 million; Western Europe
– ~5 million; Japan
–
balance; others
„ Under current and expected future
market conditions for scrap metal; it is
difficult to anticipate that subsidies would
be required to sustain the current level of
automotive materials recycle
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3.5
Billions of Vehicles
„ Typically more than 75% of automotive
materials (primarily metals) are profitably
recycled, the balance is commonly
referred to as “automotive” shredder
residue and is typically landfilled
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2.5
2
1.5
Industrialized
Nations
World
1
0.5
0
1996
2050
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ELV Recycling is a Market
Driven Success Today
Supported by a Comprehensive
Infrastructure
- 75% of automotive materials are recycled
- the other 25% is commonly called
“automotive” shredder residue
- ~ 4-5 million tons of shredder residue in N.
America; 15 million tons worldwide
N. America---•More than 12000 dismantlers
•About 20000 remanufacturers
•About 200 shredders
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ELV Recycle Concerns Lead to Regulations and
Directives
„ Response to increasing public expectations relative to environmental
stewardship and an expectation of producer responsibility
ELV, Electronics, Appliances
„ European Union promulgated the “E.U. ELV Directive” in 2000
„ Japan’s “Automobile Recycling Law” was promulgated in 2002
„ China “Statute 307- ELV Standard” was issued in 2001
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ELV regulations in China
„ Current automotive fleet in China; ~30 million
„ ELV about 1.5 million per year
„ Dismantling/materials recovery/
“remanufacturing” conducted by individuals
„ Under Statute 307, only 367 dismantling
enterprises are to be authorized (minimum
capacity of 500 vehicles per year)
„ Vehicle owners must sell ELV to an authorized
dismantler
„ Vehicles become ELV according to a mileage
schedule (e.g. passenger vehicle; 500,000 km)
„
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European Union ELV Directives---Goals
„ Goals of the EU Directives
– Ultimate goal: Less than 5% of ELV to landfill by January 2015
• 95% re-use and recovery (includes 10% waste to energy)
• 85% re-use and recycle
–
By 2006: EU Target of 85% re-use and recovery
– Member states may have lower targets, but not lower than
• 75% re-use and recovery (includes 5% waste to energy)
• 70% re-use and recycle
–
Last owner of the ELV should not pay for disposal (if costs are negative)
–
OEMs or Importers are expected to be responsible for “most” of the cost of meeting the
goals
–
Recyclers (dismantlers) will be licensed to ensure compliance with de-pollution (fluids
removal, battery removal) requirements
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European Union ELV Directives---Issues
„ Clearly focused on avoided landfill and certification of recyclers rather than lifecycle
„ Member states have ultimate responsibility for implementation and policing (Not all member
states have developed implementation plans)
„ How do you verify that you are in compliance? (requires extensive data collection on inputs
and outputs at each stage, production, dismantling, shredding)
– OEM’s are supplying materials data
– Some (not all) dismantlers and shredders are creating data bases to account for materials
inputs and outputs (Some recyclers argue that materials are being diverted to those who
do not incur the costs of tracking inputs and outputs, less than 20% accountability in
France)
„ Some recyclers argue that reporting costs associated with the Directives to date are diverting
ELV from Europe to North Africa, Eastern Europe, China: Exports of “Used” Vehicles from
Western Europe has increased to more than 30% of ELV.
„ Numerous technology options being offered (primarily energy recovery); still discussions about
what constitutes recycling vs recovery---which creates uncertainty for post-shred technology
investment
„ Recyclers (and OEMS) are asking for some reconsideration of the Directives---which is within
the framework of the current directives
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Strategic R&D Partnership for Sustainable Endof-Life Vehicle (ELV) Recycling---An Alternative
to Directives
„ ELV CRADA Partners (US ELV CRADA Team)
– Argonne National Laboratory/ U.S. Dept. of Energy
– American Chemistry Council—Plastics Division
– USCAR’s Vehicle Recycling Partnership (DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM)
„ Organizing Theme
– To achieve greater fuel-efficiency and safety, today’s cars incorporate an increasing share
of innovative lightweighting materials. While these materials greatly enhance efficiency
during vehicle use, they can present special challenges to recycling.
„ Essential Question
– Is there a business case for increased automotive materials recycling?
„ Partnership Goals
– Enable market-based optimum recycling of automotive materials
– Ensure materials that are beneficial over the life cycle are not arbitrarily precluded from
the design slate due to recycle limitations
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Current R&D Portfolio
Evolved from Roadmap
„ Roadmap Issued May 25, 2001
– Information
– Technology
– Markets
Albany Research Center
The Aluminum Association
American Plastics Council
Argonne National Laboratory
Automotive Parts Rebuilders Assoc.
DaimlerChrysler Corp.
Department of Natural Resources, Canada
Ford Motor Co.
General Motors Corp.
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Rochester Institute of Technology
Steel Recycling Institute
Sandia National Laboratory
US DOE
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Current R&D Portfolio of the Team Evolved from a
Stakeholder Workshop Report
„ The recyclability of ELVs is presently limited and several technical and economic barriers
need to be overcome to increase recovery and recycling
– Lack of commercially proven technology to cost-effectively separate, identify and
sort materials
– Lack of profitable post-use markets
– Collection infrastructure exists
„ Development of technology to recycle today’s materials will provide the basis for
recycling of future materials
„ Initial focus should be on post-shred technology
„ Industry-wide collaboration is needed
„ Worldwide technology needs to be tracked and information disseminated to users
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Why and Why Not Shredder Residue as a Source
Material?
„ Complex mixture of waste resulting from the
shredding of cars, other durables, and scrap metal to
recover metals for recycling---difficult separation
and/or conversion
Metals
Ironoxides
Polymers
„ Only 200 shredders---opportunity for volumes of
material that could be of commercial interest in
comparison to more than 20000 dismantlers
PU Foam
Oils & Dirt
Other
fines
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What are the Recycle Options?
–
Mechanical recycling --- separation and recovery of materials for re-use in original and/or
other materials applications
–
Feedstock and Chemical Recycling---Conversion of organic materials such as polymers to
fuels and chemicals (e.g. pyrolysis, gasification, glycolysis)
–
Energy Recovery--Conversion of organic materials such as polymers to heat for energy
recovery
Life-cycle analyses are being conducted to ensure that any option is environmentally
beneficial--A number of technology options (U.S. and Europe) are being benchmarked
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Argonne’s Mechanical Separation
Pilot-plant Provides a Focal Point
„ Physical separation produces
material concentrates from bulk
shredder residue
– Foam
– Ferrous and Non-ferrous
– Polymer Concentrate
„ Plastics recovery process is a 6stage wet (froth flotation) system
for recovery of plastics from the
polymer concentrate
– Polyolefins
– ABS
– Nylons
– Other
Physical Separation Pilot-Plant
Plastics Recovery Facility
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Mold Trials Confirm the Technical
Feasibility of Re-use of Recovered
Polyolefins (50-50 PP/PE)
„ Steering column cover
„ Battery tray
„ Knee bolster
„ Spare tire base plate
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Changing World Technologies---Thermochemical
conversion
„ The Changing World Technologies (CWT) two-stage thermodepolymerization process converts industrial waste to oils, gases, and
solids
„ CWT’s first commercial facility based on this technology was
commissioned in April 2003 and converts 200 ton/day of offal from a
ConAgra Foods turkey slaughterhouse into oil
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Changing World Technologies , cont.
„ CWT’s thermo-depolymerization process is
potentially applicable to a significant fraction of
shredder residue
„ A proof-of-concept bench scale test confirmed
the technical feasibility of their process
CWT’s Bench Scale Unit
„ A controlled 2000 lb test run is scheduled to be
completed during the 2nd quarter of FY07
– Analysis will be completed in 2007
– Validation of the mass and energy
balances
– Confirmation of process economics
CWT’s Pilot Plant Unit
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Accomplishments to Date
„ Developed a modular LCA for evaluation of alternative “post-shred”
recycle technologies
„ Designed, built and installed 1/10 scale mechanical separation and froth
flotation pilot-plant at Argonne (confirmation of process technology and
supply of control samples to other technology developers)
„ Confirmed the technical feasibility of recovering and reusing polyolefins
from shredder residue (research is ongoing to recovery additional
plastics)
„ Changing World Technologies confirmed the technical feasibility of
converting shredder residue to liquid hydrocarbon fuels
„ Troy Polymers confirmed the technical feasibility of converting
polyurethane foam from shredder residue to polyol initiators
„ Process economics appear favorable, but need confirmation; currently
preparing engineering designs to evaluate process economics
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Conclusions
„ Implementation of the EU ELV Directives is raising a
number of issues that need to be resolved---difficult
to gauge success at this time; regulatory constraints
can limit market options
„ Almost any recycling process option (with adequate
controls) is likely to be environmentally preferable to
landfilling
„ A number of technology approaches have been
demonstrated to be technically feasible for
increasing the recycle rate of automotive materials
– Mechanical recycling
– Conversion of the organic materials to alternate
fuels
– Energy recovery
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The changing automotive material mix over the past fifteen
years and evolutionary technology trends relative to automobile
architecture for improved safety and environmental performance
increase the recycling technical challenge
„ A joint U.S. government-industry CRADA was established in 2003 to lead the
development of improved recovery and recycling methods for current and future
ELVs
„ The vision leading to this effort is one of sustainability and reduced environmental
impact over the lifecycle of the automobile
„ Ultimately, any new technology developed in response to these changes must
have minimal risk-• Proven cost-effective at full-scale
• Proven markets for products
• Regulatory barriers removed/transactions costs minimized
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Questions?
Visit the U.S. ELV CRADA TEAM Website
(www.es.anl.gov/Energy_systems/CRADA_Team_Link/Index.html.)
This research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of
FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies and our CRADA partners: the
Vehicle Recycling Partnership of USCAR and the Plastics Division of the
American Chemistry Council.
The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract No. W-31-109ENG-38. Accordingly, The U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the
published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.
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