Vive La Difference?

Operators of automobile shredders in North America have a very good incentive to maximize the amount of marketable metal they can yield from their feedstock: the profit motive.

Operators of shredders in Europe, of course, have that same incentive, but soon they will have an additional one: a set of escalating material recovery targets mandated by the government of the European Union.

As written, the end-of-life vehicle  (ELV) directive can be considered a producer responsibility law, with automobile manufacturers and importers ultimately being responsible for demonstrating that 85% (and later, up to 95%) of the weight of the vehicles they sell are being recycled.

In practice, a tour of French recycling facilities hosted by the Chicago branch of the French Technology Press Office revealed that the two French automakers are relying heavily on the existing scrap industry and auto dismantling industries to reach the ELV targets.

AN INDUSTRY GIANT STEPS UP

Those only slightly familiar with the western European scrap metal industry may know one name above the others: France’s Compagnie Francaise des Ferrailles (CFF). CFF, by its own calculations, handles more than 40% of ferrous scrap processed in France. The company operates more than 30 of the 47 automobile shredders located in France.

CFF, taking advantage of its dominant (by scrap industry standards) presence in the market, has worked closely with French automakers Renault and PSA (makers of Peugeot and Citroen cars), with the French auto dismantling industry and even with other shredder operators to set up a system to help the two French automakers track their ELV recycling rates.

A tracking system that starts at auto dealerships (where most French cars are returned at the end of their useful lives) has been established by a new CFF subsidiary known as Eco-VHU. The system tracks vehicles by Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), following them from the dealership to a dismantler and ultimately to the shredder.

When a consumer trades in a vehicle that the dealer declines to re-sell, the dealer fills out a blank Eco-VHU form it has in its office and faxes it to the Eco-VHU office, putting the car (by VIN number) into Eco-VHU’s auditing system.

After receiving a fax, Eco-VHU alerts the dismantler it works with in the auto dealer’s region to pick up the car from the dealership within 24 hours. The dismantler “de-pollutes” it (more on that later) and also records what parts were harvested for re-sale. (The battery, the drained fluids and the re-sold parts all count toward the recycling rate.)

When the shell of that particular vehicle reaches the CFF shredder (or another “shredder partner” that may not be owned by CFF) the form travels with it, and the shredder operator faxes Eco-VHU that one of their “tracked” vehicles is about to enter the shredder. The system is designed to keep material flowing through the facilities of those who are involved, and some money also changes hands throughout this process.

What Eco-VHU can ultimately show any future EU or French recycling rate enforcement agents is a vehicle-by-vehicle breakdown for any Peugeots of what percentage was recovered through dismantling, and then they can give a company-wide breakdown of what percentage of shredded material is recovered/recycled, adding up to a total that—if the system is going to work—had better match the goal that is mandated. (A cynic might wonder how many regulators will truly be able to detect if the numbers are real?)

DISMANTLING AND DE-POLLUTING

CFF—with the help of its new Eco-VHU subsidiary—has positioned itself to remain part of any future French efforts to reach the ELV recycling goals. Likewise, many automobile dismantlers have done the same thing.

Jean Meli, SA, is a several-acre dismantling lot in the southern French city of St. Etienne. The company, named after and founded by current owner Jean Meli, buys ELVs from dealerships (80%), insurance companies (15%) and individuals (just 5%).

His company is part of the Eco-VHU system as well as that of another CFF subsidiary known as Eco-PHU, which specializes in handling batteries and fluids from ELVs. The collection and treatment of these fluids collectively is known in the EU’s ELV process as “de-pollution.”

Once a dismantler like Meli takes possession, the cars go through the EU-mandated “de-pollution” process, where the battery and oil filter are removed and all fluids are drained and stored in above-ground tanks that are emptied periodically.

At the Meli facility there are ten bays where, initially, “de-polluting” takes place, and then more standard dismantling occurs. Typical of most North American operations, engine parts and some interior parts are pulled, and then sorted and stored in a large warehouse. Jean Meli subcontracts with a company that bales autos at his facility before sending them to a shredder operator.

INDRA, another French company, practices more techniques that might be considered “deconstruction” as opposed to dismantling and shredding. But even though INDRA may employ more people involved in taking the cars apart, ultimately the parts are either re-used, become recycling feedstock, or must be land-filled.

Whoever dismantles the car is also responsible for the “de-pollution,” which includes shipping batteries to approved facilities and sending oil filters and fluids to licensed handlers. One such company in the de-pollution process is Chimirec, headquartered in Javene, France in the Brittany region. (The company has storage and processing facilities throughout the country.)

The company’s role in the ELV chain involves warehousing batteries for later shipment to breakers/smelters, and collecting fluids from auto dismantlers, and then purifying and recycling some of these fluids while disposing of others.

According to Alexandre Vivier of Chimirec, the company developed its own system to recycle oil filters as a means of solving a problem for itself and its customers. The system starts with a large hopper where used filters are dumped and slide toward a shredder. After being shredded, the material enters a centrifuge, where  much of the oil is drained for later recycling, and the still somewhat oil-soaked solids go onto a conveyor. The steel casing pieces are picked up by a magnet and rinsed and dried before being separated for later recycling. The filter paper clumps are wrung out further to recover more oil before being disposed of (or sent to a cement kiln).

The process recovers about 50% of the weight of incoming filters as ferrous scrap, 32% as recyclable oil, and 18% is left as the dirty filter paper, according to Vivier. Unfortunately, the state of French oil recycling is not good, with just one blender doing any re-synthesizing. The government does not allow any exporting of dirty oil, so much of it is also starting to head to cement kilns.

DESIGNING FOR  RECYCLABILITY

While much of the current effort to meet the pending ELV recycling goals involves the processing of auto components and materials, some European automakers are also examining the concept of designing for easier recyclability.

At a large Renault complex near Paris, Renault researchers and managers including Jean-Paul Vallat, Edouard Joly, Jean-Pascal Bourdier and Asmina Kassamaly, are involved in Renault’s ELV efforts, including a project that entails designing vehicles for easy dismantling and recycling.

According to data gathered by Renault, the French auto recycling infrastructure is currently re-using or recycling 83.5% of ELVs, just short of the 85% goal established for the year 2001 by the European Union.

Renault’s approach to meet the 85% and 95% goals, which involves four critical points:

•favoring material recovery over “energy recovery” schemes

•free take-back of ELVs from consumers

•excluding only heavy metals from the recycling process

•introducing recycling objectives into the vehicle design process.

It is the fourth point that differentiates Renault from some other automakers. Initially, they are asking suppliers to make large parts such as bumpers, dashboards, and interior panels to use just one single-resin as much as possible, so at the dismantling stage they can be shipped back to the supplier for re-grinding at their own plants.

To make this easier for dismantlers, the company is trying to design its vehicles so that these parts are easy to remove. At the Renault complex, they demonstrated for visiting journalists with a 2000 model-year car some of the things they have done in this vein. In just a few minutes, just one man was able to do the following:

•remove the battery

•remove the gear box cover

•hook up an electric control panel to the air bag switches and then “deploy” them (with a noteworthy blast)

•use a vacuum system to drain fluids

•remove the tail lights

•pry off the bumper with a crow bar

•unscrew or pry off interior panel parts, which are all marked by resin

•slash the seats and remove the foam, which consists of one large piece that is not reinforced with any metal springs that would make it difficult to remove

•shatter the glass after covering it with a large plastic “envelope” that catches it.

Renault is attempting to work with dismantlers to employ these methods by offering low cost tools for them to do the work. (And, in all likelihood, by choosing dismantlers who use those tools.) It seems, though, that they must also hope that adequate markets will develop for the resins that are used in the large parts, or they could theoretically force suppliers to take back these parts if they wish to keep doing business with Renault.

THE ENFORCEMENT QUESTION

What penalties await automakers if they fail to meet the ELV recycling mandates? In France, the answer to that question remains unclear.

Jean-Claude Oppeneau is deputy director of international affairs with ADEME, a French government agency that helps establish policy in certain matters for three different French cabinet departments. According to him, the French government currently does not have any penalties set up to enforce the ELV directive, and is apparently not considering any. It is unclear to what extent the EU can force the French government to both spell out and enforce penalties.

Oppeneau contends that both the French public and French industry have undergone a considerable change in attitude over the last seven or eight years, and that public opinion and corporate responsibility will both help ensure that the mandates are met without the needs of severe penalties.

Oppeneau acknowledges that plastics recycling is a difficult proposition, simply because it remains more economical to make plastic items from virgin resins. He notes, though, that plastic bumpers have been one bright spot, and that they “are very easy to recycle.” Damaged bumpers are collected at both dismantlers and dealerships and shipped to a recycling facility.

It remains unclear to what extent the ELV mandates will be enforced in France or the other European Union nations. But whatever penalties are devised, it is apparent that automakers and recyclers in Europe are taking the mandates seriously and taking measures to make certain that the automobile remains one of the most commonly recycled consumer goods on the market.

The Fluff Dilemma

When it comes to automobile recycling in the post-shredding stage, it remain as true in Europe as it is in America that the metals are where the money is at and the auto shredder residue (ASR), or “fluff,” remains the challenge.

Among the French auto shredder operators grappling with the ASR challenge is a company known as Bourbie, located in Issoire, France, and owned and operated by Claude Bourbie.

Drawing in scrap from throughout central France with a fleet of 100 green and white Bourbie trucks, the company feeds a 1,250-horsepower Lindemann automobile shredder. The Lindemann machine shreds about 400 tons per day, producing 300 tons of ferrous shred.

The company operates drum magnets, eddy currents, and a flotation system to wring out as much ferrous and nonferrous metal as can be garnered. But as all shredder operators know, there still ends up being a sizable amount of ASR—consisting of rubber, glass and several different types of plastic.

For the past dozen years, Bourbie has been storing all or most of its ASR on a back lot, some of it in lined pits in the ground, some of it above ground, including a large pile of windshield wipers that has been sorted and heaped in a pile. Claude Bourbie says the company is waiting to treat its ASR with a “secret” process that is nearly ready to be tested.

Among the companies in Europe offering solutions to the ASR dilemma is TRAIDEC, of Ste. Foy-L’Argentiere, France. The company is run by father and son Maurice and Eric Chambe.

The family company has its roots in egg farming and feed mills, and at one time was met with an urgent chicken manure disposal problem. They developed a drying system for the manure disposal, and later a thermolysis process to “ethically” dispose of human placentas and other tissues used by biomedical research firms in Europe.

With the complex systems developed and in-hand, they have begun looking for other applications for it and have targeted scrap tires and ASR as target markets. They are now beginning to get contracts in place to put in systems, with their first system to be built in Mexico to process industrial sludge (roughly 5,000 tons per year), and a Spanish customer is considering buying one to process some 23,000 tons per year of scrap tires.

Retiring the Tires

Among the automobile parts that can be troublesome to recycle (in Europe as in America) are the tires.

With the pending ELV mandates as well as separate laws concerning scrap tire disposal/recycling, equipment manufacturers are gearing up to take care of the likely increase in scrap tire processing. Companies such as MTB, Trept, France, are making tire recycling equipment that they may well be selling into a market that will need a great deal more processing capacity.

In Le Chambon Feugrolles, France, a new company known as SCMR has designed a tire recycling system that it hopes will gain attention in Europe.

The system includes an infeed conveyor, a de-beader, a guillotine cutter and a shredder that is not a shear-shredder, but rather one that is configured more like a horizontal grinder, with a series of grooved rollers set at 1.5 mm apart. After the rollers “squeeze” out the steel from the rubber, the material goes into a cyclone and air filter that uses weight to cause further separation and screens out dirt. After the cyclone, materials pass under a belt magnet, where ferrous strands are recovered. The remaining chips/pieces then go into a crumbing machine, where 40-grade crumb rubber, most of the remaining steel, and the fibers are separated.

Companies such as MTB, SCMR and TRAIDEC (see previous sidebar) may well get the benefit from the market changes caused by the ELV mandates and EU regulations prohibiting the landfilling of tires in 2000.