Material and Energy Recovery from Automotive Shredded Residues (ASR) via Sequential Gasification and Combustion

Shredding is the common end-of-life treatment in Europe for dismantled car wrecks. It produces the so-called Automotive Shredded Residue (ASR), usually disposed of in landfill. This paper summarizes the outcome of a study carried out by Politecnico di Milano and LEAP with the support of Actelios SpA on the prospects of a technology based on sequential gasification and combustion of this specific waste stream. Its application to the treatment of ASR allows the recovery of large fractions of metals as non-oxidized, easily marketable secondary raw materials, the vitrification of most of the ash content and the production of power via a steam cycle. Results show that despite the unfavourable characteristics of ASR, the proposed technology can reach appealing energy performances. Three of the four environmental impact indicators and the cumulative energy demand index are favourable, the main positive contributes being electricity production and metal recovery (mainly aluminium and copper). The only unfavourable indicator is the global warming index, because most of the carbon in ASR is fossil and when it is disposed of in a landfill it does not give appreciable greenhouse gas emissions.