Page 98 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

98 SECONDARY MATERIALS
CURRENT RECYCLING PROCESSES FOR ELECTRONICS AND AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS
When a a a a car reaches its end-of-life (EoL) in the UK it it passes through multiple processes to liberate components from the vehicle or to separate materials Initially the car will pass through a a a a depollution facility where the oils gases and fluids are drained from the car The tyres battery catalytic converter will then be separated from the the the vehicle This is is performed either because there is is legislation driving the the the recycling (eg - the the the battery) or or because there is is an economic value that is is more than the manual labour costs for separation The engine block is pulled from the the the the vehicle vehicle the the the the shell of the the the the vehicle vehicle is then crushed and shredded shredded The shredded shredded material which is typically below 10 cm is then processed in an auto-shredder-residue (ASR) plant (see figure 91) At an an ASR plant the shredded feed is separated into different materials including ferrous metals plastics non-ferrous metals combustible materials and brittle materials (e g g g glass) This is is performed using physical sorting techniques including magnetic separation eddy- current separation separation and density/size separation separation All of these use some physical electrical or magnetic property of the the the material to distinguish it from the the the other components/ materials (see figure 93) Electronic goods are also often shredded and passed through similar physical processes to liberate different materials Figure 90: Depollution facility (EMR)
The metals that are are extracted from these processes are are passed onto downstream processing facilities which are either based on chemical techniques (e g g hydrometallurgy) or pyrometallurgical processes where the metals are melted down and the impurities removed At present around 80% of the the metals that are are extracted in the the UK are are exported to different regions of the world This is is partly due to a a a a a lack of investment and support in in the UK’s materials- processing industries Figure 91: Auto shredder residue (ASR) plant Figure 92: Shredded electronics