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USCAR's Vehicle Recycling Partnership Sees Potential in Recycling Automotive Foams


April 2007
 Filed under: ENVIRONMENT Car News | ENVIRONMENT Headlines
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., April 16, 2007 – The United States Council for Automotive Research's (USCAR) Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) is evaluating a process that could potentially divert 250,000 tons of post-consumer shredder residue foams from landfills annually.

The VRP – composed of researchers from DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation – is evaluating a glycolysis process that converts post-consumer shredder residue foam into usable automotive foams, as one of many potentially promising recycling solutions for the remnants of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).

Currently more than 84 percent, by weight of materials, of each ELV in the United States is recycled, with 95 percent of all vehicles going through the existing infrastructure. The glycolysis process being evaluated addresses the unrecycled portion of ELVs, which today comprises the shredder residue that most often ends up in landfills.
Developed by Troy Polymers Inc., one of several private industry innovators working with the VRP and its partners to develop shredder residue recycling solutions, the process starts with foams extracted from the shredder residue. The process uses elevated temperatures to “melt” the foams, in this case polyurethane, into a new polyol, free of residual contaminants. This can be used to make new polyurethane foam.

The foams derived from the Troy Polymers’ tests were compared to foam standards currently employed by the VRP partners and demonstrated characteristics suitable for use in a number of flexible and rigid automotive foam applications.

“We are encouraged by the initial results of the Troy Polymers tests,” said Nakia Simon, DaimlerChrysler product development engineer and VRP representative. “Innovative processes like these can help bring us closer to our goal of more fully recycling all end-of-life vehicles with the added benefit of creating a recycled product for automotive use.”

The USCAR VRP currently is engaged in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council to address the sustainable recycling of current and future materials from ELVs. This is the third CRADA established among the participants since the inception of the VRP in 1991.

As part of the CRADA team, the VRP is collaborating with private industry and government to discover and implement innovative recycling solutions to enhance the current market-driven U.S. vehicle recycling infrastructure.

Troy Polymers’ glycolysis process has the potential to be a positive recycling solution for shredder residue that fits within the current U.S. recycling infrastructure.

Troy Polymers, headquartered in Troy, Mich., specializes in the development of polymer materials and products for high performance applications in medical, space, transportation and other industries.

The Vehicle Recycling Partnership is part of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). Founded in 1992, USCAR is the umbrella organization for collaborative research among DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors. The goal of USCAR is to further strengthen the technology base of the domestic auto industry through cooperative research and development.

The CRADA team’s research is supported by the VRP, the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council and the U.S. DOE Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies.

For more information, visit www.uscar.org

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Source: United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR)

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