Automotive materials recycling: a status report of U.S. DOE and industry collaboration

摘要

The objectives of this status report are: 1) to briefly outline the current status of automotive materials recycling, 2) to provide an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/industry collaborative technology development to improve automotive materials recycling, to date, and 3) to outline the goals and objectives of DOE and industry's new five year automotive materials recycle research effort. Today, about 75% of automotive materials are profitably recycled via parts reuse (through the dismantling industry), parts and components remanufacturing (through the remanufacturing industry) and, ultimately by materials recovery (through the scrap processing industry). Working with industry, the DOE has supported the development of technologies to increase the current level of automotive materials that are recycled. For example, a process for recovering and recycling flexible urethanes foams, developed at Argonne National Laboratory, is presently undergoing commercial demonstration. The DOE has also supported development of technology to improve the efficiencies of both steel and aluminum recycling. As the complexity of automotive materials and systems increases, new technologies will be required to sustain and maximize the ultimate recycling of these materials and systems at end-of-life. To meet the challenges of automotive materials recycling, the DOE has recently expanded its collaborative research in this area. This paper discusses current and planned recycle R&D.