In the field of new approaches (eco-design measure 4), it is recommended to assess the possibility to centralize all electric units (i.e. on board supply control unit, door unit, airbag unit, electronic control unit, combi instrument electronic or electronic from infotainment) in a common unit (see Figure 16 with different examples about electronic units that could be grouped). Through this way, this unit could be easily disassembled and sent from ELV authorized centers to specific recycling plants as it happens with batteries or tires. It is also recommended to assess the impact of changing the vehicle voltage from 12 V to 24 V or 48 V. This measure is being proposed to improve the engine efficiency and the performance of hybrid systems.
Note that this measure could also reduce the section of wiring. In this line, the use of Integrated Starter and Generator Technology as it is used by some manufacturers like VOLVO [221] may well reduce the demand of copper and permanent magnets containing rare earths. Finally, it is proposed to assess the impact that would have the inclusion of combi instrument information and switchers in the screen of infotainment unit. This measure would not only avoid the use of such devices but also the associated wiring.
16.a onboard supply control unit (located under the dashboard)
16.b airbag unit (located under the dashboard)
16.c door control unit (located in doors)
Figure 16: Different control units that c ould be grouped in a common one 9.3.3. Eco-design measures implementation
The impact of these measures goes beyond the studied vehicle because many models from VW group share the identified critical components. In fact, only those parts with an exterior design such as exterior mirrors, additional brake lights or combi instruments are included in just two models, the analyzed one and the SUV version based on the same platform. This fact also happens with tailor-made components such as wirings.
However a good number of components are shared by several models: door control unit (29 models); starter (30 models); generator (40 models); rain sensor (45 models) or speed sensor (88 models). So the impact of applying eco-design techniques goes usually beyond the specific model.
That being said, the application of the proposed eco-design measures needs a deeper feasibility analysis. As was shown in Chapter 8, it was quantified that around 175 € of valuable metals are lost per vehicle when current ELV processes are applied. Taking into consideration a vehicle model lifetime, the total loss would be as high as 183 M€ (Ortego et al. [201]). Knowing this figure, the next question is if this loss justifies an investment in new eco-design alternatives.
We see that the identified measures can be divided into two main groups according to the number of actors that take part. In the first group, only automobile manufacturers are involved. In the second, more stakeholders such as recyclers or dismantler centers are involved. For instance, one measure related to metals substitution affects in principle only to manufacturers.
However, a measure where components should be disassembled and subsequently sent to specific recycling or component retrofitting plants would involve several actors: dismantlers, recyclers and component manufacturers. In any case the economic benefits should be enough to generate a profit for each actor in the logistic chain.
For manufacturers, the economic feasibility could come from the savings achieved through the substitution of critical but also expensive metals by more common and less expensive ones.
Measures related to facilitating disassembly of certain components could be initially and more easily done for vehicles that belong to manufacturers. It is a fact that more and more customers are acquiring services instead of products (renting or leasing instead of purchasing) and hence more vehicles will belong to manufacturers at the end of life. A potential new income source for manufacturers could thus come from the dismantling of valuable components from these ELV or from the application of simple pretreatment operations (i.e.: disassembly of capacitors or printed circuit boards from electronic units) which are subsequently sent to specific recycling plants.
In such cases where dismantling centers need to be involved for disassembly, the business model could be centered on the revenues obtained from those components sent to retrofitting companies or alternatively to recyclers. Recyclers in turn would receive components with high concentrations of valuable metals that would be separated by means of mechanical and metallurgical processes and sent again to car or other types of manufacturers.
9.4. Conclusions of Paper V
In the past, automobile manufacturers have been working on improving the environmental performance of their products mainly through fuel efficiency and low emission techniques.
Particularly for Europe, efforts on ELV recyclability were focused on ensuring that an 85 % recycling quote (measured in mass terms) is achieved. However, vehicle manufacturers must take into consideration that meeting European ELV recycling policies does not guarantee a sustainable use of minor metals, which usually end downcycled in electric arc furnaces with steel and aluminum scrap or in the worst case in landfills. On the contrary, it incentivizes to focus on the bulky ones: steel and aluminum. Yet are these the most critical ones in terms of future supply risks for the car industry? A new environmental challenge which is resource efficiency especially for minor raw materials is coming up. These additional efforts must be aligned with the adoption of eco-design strategies to guarantee that resources are really used in a sustainable manner.
Valuable and scarce metals such as Au, Ta, Cu, Pd, Nb or Sn among others, are needed to manufacture certain components like: engines, gearboxes, starters, alternators, electronic control units, motors, LEDs, switchers or sensors. It is a fact that current vehicles are equipped with an increasing amount of electrical components that use such metals, for which no specific recycling processes exist. Moreover, since they are spread around the vehicle, disassembly is an extremely difficult task. For this reason, such components must be eco-designed to be easily disassembled, repaired, updated and retrofitted. They must be designed to be operational as much time as possible. Only when they cannot be used again, such components must be sent to specific recycling centers to obtain the valuable metals by means of using hybrid recycling approaches (physical and chemical) instead of being sent to common shredder plants where only bulk materials are recovered.
If catalytic converters, batteries or tires are sent to specific recycling centers once the vehicle ends in an ELV authorized treatment center, why not to use this same approach for more components such as screens, electronic units, switchers or sensors. Why are the screens used in the infotainment unit or in the combi instrument of a vehicle dashboard shredded? These components are equivalent to domestic tablets and contain the same scarce metals (Ag, In, Pd, Sn, Ta…). Yet contrary to tablets, such vehicle units are not considered as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and do not enter the specific WEEE recycling center. If they were considered WEEEs, they would be probably redesigned to be easily and quickly disassembled.
As it has been shown in this chapter, the application of the Thermodynamic Rarity approach through a procedure defined in this chapter offers a new dimension to help in the identification of critical components in a car.
This new dimension is the consideration of the current and future scarcity of each commodity in the crust and the loss of mineral capital associated to mineral extraction. This loss is irreversible and must be taken into account to know the physical value associated to each raw material because it puts the focus on commodities with possible future shortages from a geological point of view.
This method is presented as an easy tool to calculate the metal sustainability of components and to complement the traditional LCA assessment by means of a better understanding of the irreversibility associated to raw material extraction.
Through this method, we have shown that a common hatchback vehicle has more than 30 components considered critical from a raw material point of view. Hence, such parts are a priority to be eco-designed so as to increase the metal sustainability in the car. For such identified car parts, different eco-design measures have been proposed. It should be stated that this methodology does not assess the feasibility of implementing eco-design alternatives. It only prioritizes those components which are susceptible to be eco-designed.