Materials Recycling Prof Dr Ir Ab Stevels M

Materials Recycling Prof. Dr. Ir. Ab Stevels, M. A. h. c. Chair of Applied Eco. Design for Sustainability Lab Industrial Design Engineering Delft University of Technology Stevels@xs 4 all. nl 9/17/2020 1

Outline 1. Introduction 2. Disassembly 3. Shredding and separation 4. Material costs and revenues 5. Secondary material outlets and compatibility 6. Incineration and landfill 7. Conclusions 9/17/2020 2

Recycling Chain Collection Quantity 9/17/2020 Material and component liberation Environmental and economic treatment 3

Processing of Discarded Products Selection for product Reuse Disassembly for: Components Materials Hazardous Waste 9/17/2020 Component Reuse Material Reuse Control of Hazardous Mechanical treatment Shredding Separation Iron Aluminium Copper/ precious metals Mixed plastics 4

Disassembly vs. Mechanical Treatment + Disassembly because of value (recycling) € Mechanical treatment _ Disassembly because of cost (control hazardous materials) “What you do is value/cost dependant” 9/17/2020 5

Disassembly 9/17/2020 6

Disassembly: Minimal Amounts to Achieve Cost Neutral Minimal amount of material to be disassembled per minute (data based on West European price level) Precious metals Plastics Gold 0. 05 g PPE 250 g Palladium 0. 15 g PC, POM 350 g ABS 800 g Silver 5 g Metals Glass Copper 300 g Aluminium 700 g Iron 9/17/2020 Glass 6000 g 50000 g 7

Standard Disassembly Times (seconds) Screws 6. 5 Nuts / bolts 11. 5 25. 0 Glue joints 12. 0 Display from PWB Screws not directly 10. 5 Click, simple Clamps 15. 5 Cooling plates Screws to be broken 18. 5 Click, complicated 7. 5 9. 0 Wire connections 2. 0 Axis etc. Change screw driver 4. 0 Nails Elco from PWB 4. 5 Bending joints 9/17/2020 3. 5 26. 0 13. 0 6. 0 8

Disassembly Benchmark (TV’s) Gross time (s) TV 1 TV 2 TV 3 TV 4 TV 5 1. Getting ready 18 24 38 32 34 2. Mains cord/ plug 18 20 12 16 12 3. Unscrew back cover 56 66 16 32 28 4. Clean and sort back cover 34 42 22 44 14 5. Take out and sort PWB 24 18 22 18 16 6. Take out and sort speaker 20 16 56 54 22 7. Deflection unit 34 26 30 32 28 8. Get CRT out 72 50 74 70 90 9. Clean and sort CRT 74 62 68 46 46 10. Clean and sort front cover 74 58 74 44 82 424 380 414 386 372 Total 9/17/2020 9

Disassembly Analysis Determine Σ Nj * tstandard – With: – N = Number of joints j tstandard = Standard disassembly time per joint Identify improvement – Change of architecture – Comparison with competitors products Lower disassembly time = lower assembly time 9/17/2020 10

Example Disassembly Analysis Portable audio (‘boombox’) Brand 1 Brand 2 Brand 3 Brand 4 122 73 82 73 Connectors 7 14 7 5 Solder points 16 3 7 5 Click 14 0 0 29 1074 630 628 796 Screws Total calc. disassembly time 9/17/2020 11

Deep level manual dismantling Key reference: Best of 2 Worlds project (UNU) F. Wang, and H. Huisman, “Economic conditions formal and informal recycling of e-waste in China, ” 2008, Proceedings of the 2008 Electronic Goes Green Conference, 2008, 845 -850 United Nations University. “Sustainable innovation & technology transfer, Industrial sector studies, Recycling – From e-waste to resources, final report, ” 2009, pp. 27 -35 9/17/2020 12

Deep level manual dismantling Liberate heterogeneous materials and components more effectively (toxic and valuable fractions) More environmental gain compared to shredding Low cost in developing countries like China, improve employment Solutions for disassemble fractions towards professional end-processing shall be prepared 9/17/2020 13

Eco-efficiency Directions (1 kg of desktop computer) Revenues Deep level dismantling X (revenue) -€ 0, 40/ kg X Shredding (€) -€ 0, 85/kg (revenue) X Landfill + € 0, 10/kg (cost) Costs -10 Pts (gain) (impact) Environmental burden 9/17/2020 + 305 Pts (Pts) +390 Pts (gain) Environmental gain 14

Technical roadmap Preprocessing manual dismantling to separate the components/fractions until the optimal dismantling depth is reached Reuse Further processing Base metal – refinery Normal Plastics - plastics recycling/incineration PWB – Precious metal recovery (Umicore) Battery – Professional treatment factory Electrolyte capacitor (PCB) – Incineration CRT glass – lead-glass recycling/storage FR plastics– incineration/plastic recycling Mercury Lamp – Lamp treatment Toner cartridge – Professional recycling LCD - ? ? ? EHS system Monitoring and accounting system Dynamic management system 9/17/2020 17 September 2020 15

Mechanical Treatment 9/17/2020 16

Mechanical Treatment CRT Containing Appliances 9/17/2020 17

Mechanical Treatment Non-CRT Containing Appliances Optional: Plastics 1 (clean from handpicking) Other browngood Shredder Magnet Eddy Current Aluminium Shredder Optional: Plastics 2 (contaminated) 9/17/2020 Magnet Ferro Eddy Current Copper Sifter Residue 18

Maximizing Yield of Mechanical Treatment, I Recyclers Revenues for metals (copper, precious metals) Costs for final waste disposal (mixed plastics/ FR) Balancing revenues and costs Example mixed plastics: – The Netherlands: Fraction to copper smelter has high mixed plastics/ FR content due to avoiding high costs at landfill/ incineration – Spain: Fraction to copper smelter has high copper content due to low disposal costs mixed plastics/ FR 9/17/2020 19

Maximizing Yield of Mechanical Treatment, II Metal smelters Rewards for economies of scale Penalties for unwanted elements (limits) Rewards for precious metals (threshold) Example lead when: – Separately disassembled as metal: little value – In copper fraction: dependent on type of smelter: high threshold/ penalties – In mixed plastics stream to incineration: low threshold/ penalties 9/17/2020 20

Material Costs and Revenues 9/17/2020 21

Material Costs and Revenues (2007) Material ABS* PVC* PPE-S/B* PC-ABS* Mixed plastics FR plastics Ferro metals Picture tubes Deflection unit Wiring PWB (incl. comp. ) Speakers 0, 03 9/17/2020 €/kg Remarks * Mono stream, without flame retardants, 0, 82 0, 43 no metal coatings and stickers 0, 91 1, 25 0, 88 -0, 10 Incineration (AVR) -1, 13 Incineration (AVR chemie) 0, 10 Fe-scrap -0, 20 Ceramics 0, 50 Cu-smelter 0, 40 Cu-smelter 0, 10 Cu-smelter Fe-Cu-scrap 22

Upgrading of fractions : “ Go for Gold, (economic & environmental) Recouping 1 milligram of gold is the monetary equivalent of recouping (year 2008) : 43 grams of iron 1. 3 grams of nickel 13 grams of ABS plastic 0. 06 grams of silver 10 grams of aluminum 0. 03 grams of indium 04 grams of copper 2. 5 milligrams of palladium 0. 6 milligrams of platinum 9/17/2020 23

Secondary material outlets and compatibility 9/17/2020 24

Compatibility Table for Metals Fraction Typical knock-out (reduces value to zero or negative) Typical penalty elements (reduces value strongly) Copper (Cu) Hg, Be, PCB As, Sb, Ni, Al, Bi, Mg Aluminium (Al) Cu, Fe, polymers Si Iron (Fe) Cu Sn, Zn Example: Bismuth in a typical copper smelter < 0, 01% (threshold, free of charge) > 0, 01% and <0, 03% (penalty: 23 € per 0, 01% per ton fraction weight) > 0, 03% (unacceptable, knock-out) 9/17/2020 25

Copper Recycling: Value and Avoided Costs Value: – copper content – precious metal content Avoided costs: – lead (usually byproduct) – mixed plastics with flame retardants Shredding and separation settings determine strongly the value and processing of the copper fraction! 9/17/2020 26

Aluminium Recycling: Value depends strongly on: – – – Form Type of alloy Knock-out and penalty elements Shredding and separation settings determine strongly the value and processing of the aluminium fraction! 9/17/2020 27

Ferro Recycling: Economy of Scale Contributes to recycle% (weight) Link to other and larger streams (integrated recycler) Knock-out and penalty elements Zinc coatings are getting critical in some countries 9/17/2020 28

Compatibility Table for Plastics (general) PS ABS PA PC PVC PP PE + - ABS + - 0 - - PA - - + - - PC - + - - - PVC - 0 - - + - - PP - - - + PS PE 9/17/2020 29

Compatibility Table for PS-High Impact (specific) Plastic type Compatibility PPE + S/B + ABS + PC 0 PC + ABS 0 PP, PE, EPDM - POM 0 PBT - PVC - Cross linked rubber, PU - 9/17/2020 30

Plastic Recycling: Conditions for Success Mono materials No fillers or additives Economy of scale No paper, stickers and metal coatings 9/17/2020 31

Glass Recycling: Level of re-application TV screen/ cone glass – no cross contamination – completely metal free Ceramics Foam glass Secondary copper/ lead smelter Filler material (road paving) 9/17/2020 32

Incineration: Environmental Effects Energy recuperation Temperature of operation (dioxin and furan formation) Modernity of fuel gas cleaning Slag composition and further useful application (depends on composition input) 9/17/2020 33

Landfill: Environmental effects Type of landfill Controlled versus uncontrolled landfill – Time of operation Leaching behavior very complex – Long term effects Land-use 9/17/2020 34

Conclusions 1. Treatment to be done strictly on fraction composition and weight 2. Costs and revenues of fractions strongly depends on composition and weight 3. Material compatibility/ value and penalty elements within fractions extremely important 9/17/2020 35