Clean Techn Environ Policy (2008) 10:235244 DOI 10.

1007/s10098-007-0103-x

REVIEW

An overview of current processes for the thermochemical treatment of automobile shredder residue
Krystyna Srogi

Received: 25 January 2007 / Accepted: 14 June 2007 / Published online: 16 October 2007 Springer-Verlag 2007

Abstract The automobile is a metal-dominated complex product, comprising many different materials, and is therefore a good study case for the modeling of recycling streams based on the classical minerals processing approach. In Europe and in many industrial sectors of the world, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are collected and partly dismantled. The remaining wreck is shredded. During shredding, the wreck is broken into smaller particles, and so the materials it contains are liberated to some extent. After shredding, the particles are fed to a series of automatic physical separation processes. This results in several recovered material streams: ferrous materials, aluminium, copper, zinc, stainless steel and automotive shredder residue (ASR, which consists of mainly nonmetallic materials). Each stream suffers from some degree of contamination by foreign materials due to imperfect separation processes. It should be noted that thermochemical treatment (pyrolysis, gasication, etc.) of complex organic materials is one of the most promising methods of reducing the impact of solid, municipal and industrial wastes from environmental, storage and landll perspectives, and it can also be used to produce energy. This review compares thermochemical processes for automobile shredder residues (ASR). Keywords Automobile industry Automobile shredder residue End-of-life vehicles Pyrolysis Gasication

Introduction The collection of materials for recycling is an age-old practice, and recycling already plays an important role in waste management in many parts of Europe and in many industrial sectors (Patierno et al. 1998). Today, metals are among the most commonly recycled materials and the industries that operate in this area are known as the secondary metals industries (JAMA 2006). They operate under open market conditions and, just like any other business, aim to make prot. The paper and glass industries are also well-developed (Bellmann and Khare 2000). The car is a cornerstone of modern society, and it differs from most other products in terms of its documentation, potential scrap value and physical size. These properties make it possible to apply controlled end-of-life management to cars (Bellmann and Khare 2000). Around nine million end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are generated every year in the EU (Zoboli et al. 2000; Pera et al. 2004). Currently the metals (which comprise 75% of an ELV) of the ELV are completely recycled: 70% iron and steel and 5% nonferrous metals. The remaining materials (25%), commonly called automotive shredder residue (ASR), are disposed of by landll (Lanoir et al. 1997) or incinerated (Zoboli et al. 2000; Kusaka and Iida 2000). Therefore, the development of technology that can be used to recover usable materials form ASR and to minimize the quantity disposed of in landlls has become an important task (Horii and Iida 2001). It should be noted that automobile wrecks, and industrial products in general, contain a wide variety of connected materials. The comminution processes used for recycling are not able to completely destroy all of the joins between the different materials, which impedes the liberation of a number of material particles. These unliberated material

K. Srogi (&) Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal, Zamkowa 1, 41-803 Zabrze, Poland e-mail: krystynasrogi@poczta.onet.pl

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particles enter several material streams, carrying foreign materials along into the subsequent recycling steps. After shredding and separation, the recovered materials are reintroduced in the resource systems through metallurgic recycling processes (Castro et al. 2005). According to Bellmann and Khare (2000), the strategic signicance of ELV for shredders depends on: the ability to increase and stabilize the ow of raw materials processed and thus the nal products delivered for recycling the ability to reduce the economic and environmentally related costs of ASR by cleaning or reducing it (or through additional economic outlets, such as ASR energy recovery).

Characterization of automotive shredder residue ASR is an agglomerate of plastic (1931%), rubber (20%), textiles and bre materials (1042%) and wood (25%), which are contaminated with metals (8%), oils (5%), and other substances, some of which may be hazardous (about 10%), e.g. PCB, cadmium and lead (Das et al. 1995; Day et al. 1996; Zoboli et al. 2000; Galvagno et al. 2001). According to Jean (1996) and Day et al. (1996), household ttings (washing machines, refrigerators, and other white machines) may be shredded along with discarded cars. About three million tons of ASR may be separated into two categories of similar mass, according to combustibility criteria. The rst half consists of: (a) rubber, (b) textiles, (c) plastics (can be either transformed into alternative fuel or used in the plastics industry (Srogi and Koszorek 2004) (d) glass (and some toxic substances such as PCB), (e) windows or (f) batteries (Hoyle 1995). The second half, called incombustible shredder residue (ISR), has not yet been valorized. ISR contains 30% organic matter, as well as inorganic compounds such as quartz, calcite, magnetic, hematite, and gypsum. It is also very rich in zinc (13.5%) and lead (0.73.3%) (Pera et al. 2004). Here, an example of the of the analysis of the composition of ASR obtained by pulverizing car scrap (100%) after removal of the engine, chassis, batteries, oil, etc., is shown in Fig. 1 (JAMA 1999). PVC (polyvinyl chloride), polyurethane (PU) and rubber were found to be the main organic components of ASR by Trouve et al. (1998) in their study of metal partitioning during the incineration of ASR. The high levels of these materials (PVC contains 34.4% by weight, polyurethane 48.7%, rubber 82.6%; Trouve et al. 1998) suggests the protable application of thermal treatment (i.e., pyrolysis

This strategy is therefore highly constrained by the development of other parts of the ELV chain. Various studies have been conducted on automobile shredder residues in the recent past. This research has mainly concerned economic and energetic aspects of automobile shredder residue (Das et al. 1995; Day et al. 1996) and its environmental impacts (Horii and Iida 2001). The aim of this review is to provide an overview of ASR and to discuss the advantages and limitations of applying technologies to the recycling of automobile wrecks.

Policy for ELVs The European Directive 2000/53/CE (EC 2000) establishes minimum levels of resources and energetic recoveries that must be obtained for ELVs. Member states have to take the necessary measures to ensure the following targets are met: By no later than 1 January 2006, the resource recovery for all ELVs must be at least 85% of the average weight per vehicle and year, and the energy recovery must be at least 5% of the average weight per vehicle and year; and by no later than 1 January 2015, the resource recovery for all ELVs must be at least 95% of the average weight per vehicle and year, while the energy recovery must be a minimum of 10% of the average weight per vehicle and year.

ELVs are recycled and disposed of in three steps. In the rst step, ELVs are delivered to dismantlers, where they are drained of uids and the wheels are removed. When feasible, spare parts are extracted for resale. The ELVs are then delivered to a shredder where iron and nonferrous metals are extracted. The remaining shredder waste (ASR) is disposed of mainly in landlls or incinerated (Das et al. 1995; Day et al. 1996; Zoboli et al. 2000; Galvagno et al. 2001; van Schaik et al. 2002).

Fig. 1 Example of the composition of ASR (JAMA 1999)

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An overview of current processes for the thermochemical treatment of automobile shredder residue Fig. 2 Automotive wreck elimination process (De Macedo 1984)

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or gasication) to ASR. For example, Endoh et al. (2006) studied methods for the removal of copper and chlorine from ASR, so that it could be utilized as a fuel. By compressing and thus solidifying the ASR for extrusion, the polyvinylchloride (PVC) that covered electrical cables was softened and stripped from the copper wire. The solidied ASR was comminuted with cutter mills and classied by dry density separation. The copper contents of the obtained light products were 0.20.5%. Furthermore, they studied the possibility of dechlorinating the ASR by mechanochemical (MC) activation (the light product of the ASR was milled with CaO or CaCO3). The chlorine content decreased to about one-tenth of the original value after MC activation over 8 h. Therefore, the processes of softening stripping and comminution liberated the PVC-covered cables and decreased the copper content of the ASR. In addition, dechlorination of the ASR was also made possible by MC activation with the addition of calcium compounds. According to Lanoir et al. (1997), the procedure used to recycle automotive wrecks can be divided into the main phases shown in Fig. 2 (De Macedo 1984): Batteries are removed and all uids are recycled The wrecks are then mechanically reduced in size to procedure automotive shredder residue (ASR), A rst fraction of ASR, which consists primarily of low-density plastic pieces, is separated from the shreds by an air separator. Some other materials, such as glass, wood, sand, dust and ne metallic particles may also be carried away with the plastics.

The nonmagnetic shreds, which contain some highdensity plastic pieces (primarily rubber) and some nonmagnetic metals such as aluminium, copper and zinc, are sorted by induction. The nonmagnetic metallic shreds are separated from the organic matter and may be recycled in zinc-coating shops. The organic shreds, which constitute the second ASR fraction (fraction no. 2), have high specic energy (25 MJ kg1) and can be used as fuel in several industries. Fractions no. 1 (low-density plastics) and no. 2 (highdensity plastics) together make up 25% of the vehicles weight and are generally called ASR.

This fraction is generally called uff (fraction no. 1). Later, ferrous metals are extracted from the remaining shreds by passing them through a magnetic eld. Each year, 1.2 million tons of scrap iron are obtained using this technique and reused in steel mills to produce steel.

Figure 3 (based on VDA 1994; Bellmann and Khare 2000) provides an overview of the recycling system as conceptualized in Germany. The ferrous and nonferrous metal recycling industries are well-established in the European Union (Commission of European Communities 1997, 1998). The paper, glass and textile recycling industries have also developed rapidly in recent years. Although the principal recycling industries have some common features, they also exhibit very different characteristics due to the different technical and commercial processes involved in recycling these different materials (Bellmann and Khare 2000). The levels of recycling in the current automobile recycling system are shown in Fig. 4 (JAMA 1999). According to JAMA (1999), 7580% of the weight of the automobile is currently recycled through the different stages of dismantling, shredding, ASR sorting and processing. The remaining 2025% is disposed of as ASR in landlls; 40% of this ASR is organic and 40% inorganic. About 3% of the ASR is the particularly valuable metal copper. This is mostly derived from the copper used in harnesses. The organics include a large amount of plastics and other substances with high caloric contents. ASR as a whole has a caloric content of around 19 MJ/kgabout

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238 Fig. 3 Recycling of ELVs (Bellmann and Khare 2000; VDA 1994)

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the same as coal. ASR currently constitutes 2025% of the weight of the original automobile. Even if all of the organics were completely incinerated, 810% ash (inorganics) would remain. Even if everything apart from the ash was recycled, the recycling rate would be 9092%. This would not be enough to reach the 95% target for the year 2015. Therefore, this ash must be recycled in some form if the target gure is to be achieved (JAMA 1999).

Technologies used to dispose of automobile shredder residue (ASR) The thermoutilization of ASR in plants for the treatment of urban solid wastes is an alternative practised at the

international level. This option undoubtedly enables energy to be recovered (with little or no additional investment in the plant required), but, due to the different characteristics of ASR compared to urban solid waste, it poses certain problems, such as the need for a suitable system to pretreat the waste for chlorine removal (before it is fed to the incinerator) and the need to control the gases emitted during treatment (Galvagno et al. 2001). Fink (1999) used ASR as a secondary fuel instead of a fossil fuel in the cement industry. The use of ASR resulted in processing problems; in particular, the injection zones became clogged. The main disadvantages of this application are scaling, corrosion (due to the presence of chlorine) and the need for thorough checking of the ue gas for the presence of heavy metals, particularly the volatiles thallium, cadmium and mercury. ASR can also be used as an alternative fuel (instead of coal) in the iron metallurgical industry, with excellent emission control. This can be attributed to the fact that blast furnaces are able to comply with the values xed by national standards without any signicant additional investment. The use of such material, especially in the metallurgical sector, offers energetic, environmental and economic advantages without the need to install new plants (Galvagno et al. 2001). In the following sections, technologies used for the disposal of ASR, including pyrolysis and gasication, will be described.

Pyrolysis of automobile shredder residue

Fig. 4 Recycling of automobiles: current state and issue (JAMA 1999)

One technology receiving a great deal of interest in the eld of polymeric waste stream recycling is pyrolysis. As is

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well known, pyrolysis, which is an endothermic process, is the thermal degradation of macromolecular materials in the absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis offers an environmentally attractive method for the treatment of ASR. This technology is particularly applicable to mixed and contaminated plastic wastes, which can be converted back to petrochemical feedstock, along with some carbonaceous char. While incineration with energy recovery may be an attractive process to deal with these waste streams, public pressure regarding environmental emissions has restricted its universal acceptance. Pyrolysis, on the other hand, is seen as an environmentally attractive alternative for the recovery of hydrocarbon materials from a wide range of polymeric waste streams, such as plastic waste and tyres, with several processes being investigated by industry. ASR is a particularly heterogeneous polymeric waste stream, for which pyrolysis may represent a viable resource recovery process (Day et al. 1999). The process generally begins with the preheating of the shredded materials fed to the reactor. In the reactor, depending upon the process parameters chosen, the waste material is heated to the required temperature. The pyrolysis products represent a signicant percentage of the initial volume of organic matter that can be converted into energy, to either sustain the process or produce excess power (Galvagno et al. 2001). The main products of this process are a solid phase (char), a liquid phase (tar) and a gaseous phase (Fortuna et al. 1997). To remove oils and tars from the gas ow leaving the reactor, liquid separations clean the gas. The oil fraction (mainly composed of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons) can be condensed at normal pressure and temperature, whereas the gaseous fraction is composed of noncondensable organics: H2, H2S, CH4, CO, NH3, etc. The percentages of oil and gaseous fractions depend on the operating conditions, such as the temperature and pressure in the pyrolysis reactor, the residence time and the type of catalyst used. The oil and gas, for example, can be used as fuels within the pyrolysis system, or for an adjacent plant, such as a combined heat and power system. Char and steel are also recovered from the process. The products are generally obtained in the following proportions: char fraction 30%, oil residue 40%, metallic fraction 18%, gas 12% (Galvagno et al. 2001). Conventional pyrolysis is carried out at moderate temperatures (300600 C) and at low heating rates (with vapour residence times of 10 s10 min) and it gives approximately equal mass fractions of gas, liquid and solid products. Bridgwater et al. (1999) specied the essential features of a fast pyrolysis process: (1) very high heating and heat transfer rates, which usually require nely ground feed; (2) a carefully controlled reaction temperature of around

500 C in the vapor phase, with short vapor residence times (less than 2 s); (3) rapid cooling of the pyrolysis vapors to maximize oil production. Fast pyrolysis enables a maximum liquid yield of *70% on a weight dry basis. Braslaw et al. (1991) compared the product yields and compositions obtained from ASR pyrolysis performed in three experimental systems of different scale: a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA), a bench-scale batch pyrolyzer and a continuous rotary kiln reactor. An average of 53% by weight of the feed material was volatilized in the benchscale reactor. The liquid yield averaged 34%, while the gaseous product averaged 19.4% in the bench-scale reactor. The rotary kiln reactor (operating temperature 650 C) maximized the gas yield, which reached 42.4%. Day et al. (1996) focused attention on the products from the pyrolysis of ASR in a commercial screw kiln unit (solid residence time 15 min, pyrolysis temperature 500 C). The material balance was 2% gas, 31% pyrolysis liquids (21% oil and 10% water) and 43% solid residues, and the gas energy content was sufciently high to maintain the energy requirements of the pyrolysis process. The same authors continued their study on a bench-scale screw kiln reactor with a feed rate of about 100 g h1 (Day et al. 1999) at temperatures of between 500 and 750 C (and solid retention times ranging from 3.6 to 11.4 min). This resulted in the production of gas, liquid and solid fractions, with hydrocarbon yields of the organic fraction present in the feed increasing from 60 to 85% with increasing pyrolysis temperature. While the hydrocarbon pyrolysis product (pyrolysis gas, since the oil fraction contains hydrocarbons) yield increased with pyrolysis temperature, the yield of the oil fraction was higher at lower pyrolysis temperatures. The composition of the pyrolysis oil also changed with pyrolysis temperature, containing larger quantities of aliphatic compounds at the lower temperatures than at higher temperatures, where aromatics were the major compounds. Many of the liquid pyrolysis products have been identied, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as organic nitrogen, sulfur and chlorine compounds. Galvagno et al. (2001) also explored the possibility of using a pyrolysis process as an alternative to ASR landlls. The results obtained from the elementary analysis are presented in Table 1 (Galvagno et al. 2001) used a pilot scale pyrolysis plant (a rotary kiln reactor 110 l in volume with a maximum feeding rate of 60 l h1). They concluded that at high temperature, up to 680 C, complete conversion of the material takes place. Moreover, the production of gas is favoured over oil at this temperature. In addition, the process permits the recovery of material from the solid residue (metal). On-site utilization of gas, as combustible material, decreases overall process management costs. Rausa and Pollesel (1997) studied the thermal behaviour of ASR using a thermobalance coupled to a Fourier

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240 Table 1 Characteristics of ASR Galvagno et al. 2001 Caloric value Water Ash (550 C) Carbon Sulfur Nitrogen Oxygen Hydrogen Chlorine 17.37 (MJ/kg) 14.90% 37.10% 37.20% 0.40% 2.10% 1.50% 4.80% 2.00% 7.89% 310% 12.11% 56.61% 0.23% 2.72% Rausa and Pollesel (1997) 28.3 (MJ/kg)

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Elemental analysis

transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer and the System for Thermal Diagnostic Studies (STDS) (as a function of temperature and for a residence time of 2 s) and demonstrated, for a pyrolysis temperature of [650 C, the presence of substances of strong environmental concern, mainly polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons such as uoranthene or benzo[a]pyrene in the gas phase. Mirabile et al. (2002) veried in a pilot plant that the temperatures and atmospheres that characterize blast furnaces allow the complete destruction of all organic compounds and avoid the formation of micropollutants. Furthermore, heavy metals are dissolved in the hot metal and in the slag. Technical and economic evaluations showed encouraging results in the range of 13% by weight of ASR in the auxiliary combustible.

According to Funazaki et al. (2003), sorted ASR is inserted into the rotary kiln and separated into combustible gas and residue by rotating and mixing for approximately 1.5 h under no oxygen conditions at 450 C. The residue is cooled and metals (iron and steel, aluminium and copper) are recovered again. The recovered residue (carbon residue) is burnt in a furnace with combustible gas and then becomes melted slag with glass. The slag is used for road foundations. The system ows of the rotary kiln-type gasication and melting plant for ASR shown in Fig. 5 (Funazaki et al. 2003). It should be noted that vacuum pyrolysis represents a recycling process that enables the thermal decomposition of a wide variety of solid or sludgy organic wastes to useful products. Vacuum pyrolysis (Fig. 6) experiments were carried out by Chaala et al. (1999) in a pilot plant retort with a volume of about 850 l (fed-batch with 130 kg of ASR) at 450 C and a total pressure of 5 kPa. They concluded that vacuum pyrolysis of automobile shredder residues indicated that this material has a composition and behaviour similar to that of petroleum bitumen (PB). It was found that the pyrolytic oil residue (PR), when compared with classical PB used in road pavements, possesses the consistency of bitumen, with a penetrability grade of 150 200. Roy and Chaala (2001) applied the same process in the temperature range of 496536 C and at a total pressure of *15 kPa to different kinds of ASR using a laboratory batch reactor with a working volume of 15 l. The composition of the ASR feedstock and pyrolysis products has been thoroughly characterized. The process provides a

Fig. 5 System ows of the rotary kiln-type gasication and melting plant for ASR (Funazaki et al. 2003)

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Fig. 6 Scheme of the vacuum pyrolysis process (Chaala et al. 1999)

means to considerably reduce the volume of material destined for landll by transforming the organic components of this complex waste feedstock into valuable products. It was possible to readily recover 14 wt% of the feedstock as useful metals in the solid residues; the material left over can be safely landlled. Pyrolytic gas and oil can be used as heating fuels. The heavy fraction of the oil ([400 C) can be added to road bitumens (asphalts) in order to improve their performance. The total oil also represents a challenging matrix for various purposes. According to these authors, this study led to the conclusion that vacuum pyrolysis appears to be an interesting process for ASR treatment when compared with landll and incineration. The process provides a means to considerably reduce the volume of material destined for landll by transforming the organic components of this complex waste feedstock into valuable products. Valuable ferrous and nonferrous metals can be readily separated from the solid pyrolytic residues and the remainder can be safely landlled as an ultimate, inert residue. The oil has a low-level metal content and a high caloric value and has the potential to be used as a

secondary fuel. The vacuum pyrolysis technology does not have the drawbacks of incineration and landll and may offer a greater degree of exibility in terms of energy recovery. Shen and et al. (1995) considered the fast pyrolysis (ultrapyrolysis) process for ASR treatment. Experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure and temperatures of between 700 and 850 C with vapour residence times of between 0.3 and 1.4 s. Pyrolysis product weight percentages were 5868% for solid residues, 1323% for gases and only 412% for the pyrolysis oil and water, probably due to the high ash content of the ASR used (58 wt%). The objective of the work (Zolezzi et al. 2004) was to evaluate the optimal process parameters as well as the yield and the main characteristics of the procedure obtainable from the conventional and the fast ASR pyrolysis processes. Pyrolysis tests (conventional and fast) were carried at temperatures of between 500 and 800 C (ASTM 2002). Conventional pyrolysis maximized gas production (about 35% coupled with 20% oil production), while fast pyrolysis

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gave an oil yield of [55%. The carbon content of the conventional pyrolysis gas reached 36.4% by weight of the feed at 800 C, while more than 69% of the initial carbon was found in the pyrolysis oil obtained by the fast pyrolysis at 800 C. The higher heating value (HHV) of the conventional pyrolysis gas ranged from 8.8 to 25.07 MJ/N m3. The fast pyrolysis oil HHV ranged between 28.8 and 36.27 MJ/kg (ENEA 2000). They concluded that this pilotscale pyrolysis plant design could be adapted to the most suitable process in relation to energy requirements and product end-uses. In conclusion, both conventional and fast pyrolysis processes offer attractive ways to recover energy from ASR as alternatives to more traditional routes, such as incineration, because of their reduced environmental impact (e.g. reduced atmospheric emissions of toxic contaminants) and the ability to recover materials (e.g. adsorbents from chars, chemicals from tars). This review led to the conclusion that pyrolysis appears to be an interesting process for ASR treatment when compared to landll and incineration. The process provides a means to considerably reduce the volume of material destined for landll by transforming the organic components of this complex waste feedstock into valuable products. Valuable ferrous and nonferrous metals can be readily separated from the solid pyrolytic residues and the remainder can be safely landlled as inert residue. The oil has a low-level metal content and a high caloric value and has the potential to act as a secondary fuel. The process generated a low yield of gas, which represents a signicant heat source for the process. It should be noted that pyrolysis did not have drawbacks and offers a greater degree of exibility in the use of recovered energy (Roy and Chaala 2001).

and y ash, demonstrating that each system was viable as a means to treat ASR; (2) the gasication system improved the rate of thermal decomposition by performing treatment at high temperatures; by lowering the air ratio, these systems also increased the generation ratios of CO and H2; (3) the gasication systems reduced both the generation of residuals and the gross volumes of dioxins generated when compared to conventional incineration. Iida (1999) and later Horii and Iida (2001) studied the characteristics of ASR pyrolysis obtained by the dry distillation and gasication process in a fed-batch reactor. In the distillation furnace, solidied ASR (900 1,500 kg) is heated by oxygen-poor gas blown in from a heating furnace, evolving combustible fuel gas. The gas generated (composed mainly of methane) is burned in the secondary combustion furnace at 1,2001,300 C. They measured the composition of the generated gas and the mass reduction in the ASR residue after processing. The optimum operating temperature was 500 C in the distillation furnace; at this temperature the heating value of the gas was about 15.5 MJ/kg (3,700 kcal/kg) and the mass reduction in the ASR was about 50%. They concluded that pyrolysis temperatures must be maintained at below 700 C to prevent signicant levels of oxidized copper forming in the ASR residue. It should be noted the complete process of gasication in the fed-batch reactor consists of the following steps (Horii and Iida 2001): Sorting: A sorting system is used to separate the ASR into combustible and noncombustible materials. Combustible materials consist mainly of plastics, and noncombustible materials include metals, glass, etc. Volume reduction and solidication of ASR: Combustibles are heated and compressed into wafers about 20 30 cm long, 15 cm wide, and 2 cm thick. These wafers are referred to as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). To promote heat transfer, this solidied ASR is made at with wavy projections on the surface. The density of these wafers is about 1.2 g/cm3, and, accounting for typical packing densities, a bed of these wafers typically has a density of 0.40.5 g/cm3. The heating value of these wafers is about 25.1 MJ/kg. Dry distillation and gasication of ASR: the ASR wafers are placed in a special cage, which is placed into the dry distillation furnace. The ASR is heated to about 1,000 C by oxygen-poor gas blown in from a heating furnace, and this ow of hot gas heats the wafers, evolving combustible fuel gas. This gas is mainly composed of methane.

Gasication of automobile shredder residue A gasication system has several advantages over incineration systems, which have conventionally been the main approach to waste treatment. The rst advantage of a gasication system is that it can minimize the amount of exhaust gas. The second is its ability to reduce the total amount of NOx and dioxins generated. The third is that metals can be reused and slag can be utilized as a material for civil engineering and construction because ash from waste can be melted into slag at high temperatures. The fourth is a wide variety of potential uses of gases resulting from the gasication system, including its use as a fuel for gas engines and fuel cells and its use as a raw material for synthesizing methanol and ammonia (Kondoh et al. 2001). They concluded that: (1) ASR was thermally decomposed using the gasication melting systems and collected in the form of gas, slag

Figure 7 shows a ow chart for ASR processing, from sorting to dry distillation gasication (Hori and Iida 2001).

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References
ASTM (2002) Standard practice for proximate analysis of coal and coke (ASTM D3172-89). In: ASTM book of standards, vol 05.06. ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA Bellmann K, Khare A (2000) Economic issue in recycling end-of-life vehicles. Technovation 20:677690 Braslaw J, Melotik DJ, Gealer RL, Wingeld RC Jr (1991) Hydrocarbon generation during the inert gas pyrolysis of automobile shredder waste. Thermochim Acta 196:118 Bridgwater AV, Meier D, Radlein D (1999) An overview of fast pyrolysis of biomass. Org Geochem 30:14791493 Castro MB, Remmerswaal JAM, Reuter MA, Boin UJM (2004) A thermodynamic approach to the compatibility of materials combinations for recycling. Resour Conserv Recycl 43:119 Castro MB, Remmerswaal JAM, Brezet JC, van Schaik A, Reuter MA (2005) A simulation model of the comminutionliberation of recycling streams. Relationships between product design and the liberation of materials during recycling. Int J Miner Process 75:255281 Chaala A, Ciochina OG, Roy C (1999) Vacuum pyrolysis of automobile shredder residues: use of the pyrolytic oil as a modier for road bitumen. Resour Conserv Recycl 26:155172 Commission of European Communities (1997) Proposal for a council directive on end of life vehicles [COM(97) 358 nal 97/0194 (SYN)]. European Communities, Brussels Commission of European Communities (1998) The competitiveness of the recycling industries [COM(98) 463 nal]. European Communities, Brussels Das S, Randall TR, Rizy CG, Cchexnayder SM (1995) Automobile recycling in the United States: energy impacts and waste generation. Resour Conserv Recycl 14:265284 Day M, Cooney JD, Shen Z (1996) Pyrolysis of automobile shredder residues: an analysis of the products of a commercial screw kiln process. J Anal Appl Pyrol 37:4967 Day M, Shen Z, Cooney JD (1999) Pyrolysis of auto shredder residues: experiments with a laboratory screw kiln reactor. J Anal Appl Pyrolysis 51:181200 De Macedo JR (1984) Etude sur la valorisation des steriles de broyage depaves automobiles (Study of the resource recovery of automotive shredder residues) Rapport A.N.R.E.D., France In: Lanoir D, Trouve G, Delfosse L, Froelich D, Kassamaly A, 1997. Physical and chemical characterization of automotive shredder residues. Waste Manag Res 15:267276 EC (2000) Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles Commission Statements. Off J Eur Comm L269:00340043 EC (2002) Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and the council on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). European Communities, Brussels Endoh S, Takahashi K, Lee JR, Ohya H (2006) Mechanical treatment of automobile shredder residue for its application as a fuel. J Mater Cycl Waste Manag 8:8894 ENEA (2000) Rapporto Energia e Ambiente 2000, vol. 2, I dati. ENEA, Rome. ISBN 08-8286-010-8 Fink JK (1999) Pyrolysis and combustion of polymer wastes in combination with metallurgical processes and the cement industry. J Anal Appl Pyrol 51:239252 Fortuna F, Cornacchia G, Mincarini M, Sharma VK (1997) Pilot scale experimental pyrolysis plant: mechanical and operational aspects. J Anal Appl Pyrol 40/41:403417 Funazuki A, Taneda K, Tahara K, Inaba A (2003) Automobile life cycle assessment issues at end-of-life and recycling. JSAE Rev 24:381386

Fig. 7 Automobile shredder residue processing owchart (Horii and Iida 2001)

Conclusion It is true that reducing and recycling automobile shredder residue (ASR) are very important ways to improve the recycling rate of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Thus, the automobile recycling effort begins at the earliest stages of vehicle design and development in order to ensure the appropriate disposal of a vehicle at the end of its service life. In addition to increased recyclability, efforts are now being made to reduce the volume of automobile shredder residue (ASR) that is generated from ELVs and to utilize the ASR more effectively, by such means as converting it into distilled gas to recover its energy. This is necessary in order to account for a number of issues, including national policies, environmentally attractive disposal methods, and so on. In view of these issues, it is not surprising that it is necessary to search for new methods, in addition to the traditional landll option, for disposing ASR. Thus, recovery and thermal treatment (incineration, gasication and pyrolysis) seem to be the must advanced and signicant disposal options.

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