Mechanical Treatment of Automobile Shredder Residue for its Application as a Fuel

摘要

Enforcement of the Law for Recycling of End-of-Life Vehicles in Japan requires utilization of automobile shredder residue (ASR). However, the contents of copper (-5%) and chlorine (～1%) in the ASR are standing in the way of practical application. We studied advanced treatment of the ASR to remove the elements that obstruct the utilization as a fuel of the ASR. By compressing ASR using an extruder to reduce the volume, PVC covered electric cable was molten and the PVC cover was stripped from the copper wire. The solidified ASR was ground with cutter mills and classified by dry density separation. The copper contents in the obtained lightweight products were 0.2-0.3%. We examined the possibility of de-chlorination by mechanochemical activation (MC) processing of the ASR. The ASR was milled with CaO and/or CaCO{sub}3. The chlorine content decreased to about one-tenth of that in the ASR after 8 hours MC processing. This procedure shows that molten-stripping processing liberates the PVC covered cable easily, and provides high quality fuel that can be used in the steel industry. In addition, dechlorination of the ASR was also possible by the MC processing with the addition of calcium compounds.