Edward J. Daniels

Recovering recyclable materials from shredder residue

Each year, about 11 million tons of metals are recovered in the United States from about 10 million discarded automobiles. The recovered metals account for about 75 percent of the total weight of the discarded vehicles. The balance of the material, known as shredder residue, amounts to about three million tons annually and is currently landfilled. The residue contains a diversity of potentially recyclable materials, including polyurethane foams, iron oxides, and certain thermoplastics. This article discusses a process under development at Argonne National Laboratory to separate and recover the recyclable materials from this waste stream. The process consists essentially of two stages. First, a physical separation is used to recover the foams and the metal oxides, followed by a chemical process to extract certain thermoplastics. The status of the technology and the process economics are reviewed here.

Recovering CO2 From Large− and Medium-Size Stationary Combustors

This paper summarizes the results of research conducted at Ar-gonne National Laboratory (ANL) to develop and design a novel method for the recovery of CO2 from flue gases. The basic process concept Involves the combustion of a hydrocarbon fuel using a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide (or CO2 and H20) rather than air as the oxidant, which results In a product stream that contains primarily CO2 and H2O. This stream Is then dried and conditioned to meet the specifications of the end user, A slip stream of CO2 (or CO2, and H20) is used as a diluent in the combustion chamberto maintain a flame temperature equivalent to the temperature that would otherwise be obtained using air as an oxidant. The cost-effectiveness of the process in recovering C02 is dependent on the scale of the operation, the type of fuel used, the cost of oxygen, and the cost of capital. The sensitivity of the cost of the recovered C02 to these variables Is discussed, and a model for estimating the cost of CO2 recovered using the ANL pro...

Recycling Of Plastics In Automobile Shredder Residue

Argonne National Laboratory has been conducting experiments to recover some of the plastics in the auto shredder residue (ASR) for recycling into the plastics manufacturing stream. As part of the study, we also reviewed the literature related to the disposal and handling of ASR. The results indicate that using solvents to extract individual thermo-plastics or mixtures from ASR is technically feasible. The economic competitiveness of the process depends on many factors, including the cost of disposal, how the individual plastics affect the disposal method and cost, and the market value of the recovered plastics. We present the results obtained so far and the integrated treatment and disposal procedures that are compatible with the needs of industry.

Electrolytic Separation and Recovery in Caustic of Steel and Zinc from Galvanized Steel Scrap

Abstract Experiments were conducted to examine the technical and economic feasibility of a single-step process for electrochemically separating and recovering in hot caustic the components of galvanized steel. Electrochemical separation is practical because: 1. maximum anodic zinc dissolution currents yield commercially acceptable throughputs and are 1000 times greater than those for steel, 2. steel is not seriously corroded by caustic under conditions proposed and 3. the process is robust in the presence of expected aluminum, lead, cadmium and iron impurities. Stripping experiments in 5 M NaOH at 90°C indicate that a G-90 grade (275 g Zn/m2) of galvanized steel can be stripped in about five minutes at a current density of 200 mA/cm2 in a cell with parallel electrodes separated 15 to 59 mm. Tests with scrap at densities of 30 and 150 lbs/ft2 were successful at estimated current densities of about 20 mA/cm2. Residual zinc levels on the steel are less than 0.1 wt%. A technical and economic analysis of alter...

Integrating O2 production with power systems to capture CO2

Abstract Chemical cycles for separating oxygen (O 2 ) from air were developed many years ago. These cycles involve a chemical reaction to capture O 2 from the air and a change in the operating conditions to effect a controlled breakdown of the newly formed product to release the O 2 and regenerate the original species. These cycles are generally more expensive than cryogenic separation of air, partly because they consume high-temperature thermal energy (500–850°C). The chemical cycles can be integrated with high-temperature power cycles to provide efficient heat cascading and recovery because the different temperature levels at which they require thermal energy are compatible with the levels encountered in high-temperature power cycles. The O 2 can be used in the combustion process to generate a CO 2 -rich stream that is more readily separable for production of commercial-grade CO 2 . This paper presents a preliminary discussion of such integrated systems to facilitate the capture of CO 2 , aimed at reviving interest in these cycles.

Mass balance and composition analysis of shredder residue.

The process of shredding end-of-life vehicles to recover metals results in a byproduct commonly referred to as shredder residue. The four-and-a-half million metric tons of shredder residue produced annually in the United States is presently land filled. To meet the challenges of automotive materials recycling, the U.S. Department of Energy is supporting research at Argonne National Laboratory in cooperation with the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and the American Plastics Council. This paper presents the results of a study that was conducted by Argonne to determine variations in the composition of shredder residue from different shredders. Over 90 metric tons of shredder residues were processed through the Argonne pilot plant. The contents of the various separated streams were quantitatively analyzed to determine their composition and to identify materials that should be targeted for recovery. The analysis established a reliable mass balance for the different materials in shredder residue.