Economic Impact of Aluminum‐Intensive Vehicles on the U.S. Automotive Recycling Infrastructure

Abstract

❙ SummaryThe use of aluminum alloys in automobile production is growing as automakers strive to lower vehicle fuel consumption and reduce emissions by substituting aluminum for steel. The current recycling infrastructure for end-of-life vehicles is mature, profitable, and well suited to steel-intensive vehicles; increased use of cast and wrought aluminum, however, will present new challenges and opportunities to the disassembler and shredder, who now comprise the first stages of the vehicle recycling infrastructure.Using goal programming techniques, a model of the auto recycling infrastructure is used to assess the materials streams and process profitabilities for several different aluminum-intensive vehicle (AIV) processing scenarios. The first case simulates the processing of an AIV in the current recycling infrastructure. Various changes to the initial case demonstrate the consequences to the disassembler and shredder profitabilities whenever the price of nonferrous metals changes; greater fractions of the vehicle are removed as parts; the parts removed by the disassembler have increased aluminum content; the quantity of polymer removed by the disassembler is increased; the disassembly costs increase; the disposal costs for shredder residue and hazardous materials increase; the shredder processing costs increase; and different AIV designs are considered. These profits are also compared to those achieved for a steel unibody vehicle to highlight the impact of introducing AIVs into the existing infrastructure. Results indicate that the existing infrastructure will be able to accommodate AIVs without economic detriment. ❙ Keywords aluminum automobile disassembly goal programming recycling scrap

Environmentally conscious manufacturing and product recovery (ECMPRO): A review of the state of the art

“…In a follow-up study, Boon et al (2003) expand Isaacs and Gupta's (1997) mathematical formulation for the recycling Infrastructure to assess the materials streams and process profitabilities of several different clean vehicles with different material content. Boon et al (2001) present a similar analysis for aluminum-intensive vehicles. Bandivadekar et al (2004) investigate the material flows and economic exchanges within the automotive recycling infrastructure.…”

A Framework for Reverse Logistics

“…This is happening for a whole range of industries, covering electronic goods, pharmaceuticals, beverages and so on. For instance, the automobile industry is busy changing the physical and virtual supply chain to facilitate end-oflife recovery (Boon et al, 2001;Ferguson and Browne, 2001). Besides this, distant sellers like e-tailers have to handle high return rates and many times at no cost for the customer.…”

Modeling and Prediction of the end of Life Vehicles Number Distribution in Serbia

“…The aim of this study was to determine the optimal level of plastics which are needed to be removed, after the shredding process, to maintain the profitability of all business areas within the infrastructure. Using the same approach, two additional studies were conducted, one to determine the increasing effect of the materials content based on aluminum in vehicle on the infrastructure [11], and other to compare the impact of electronic vehicles, hybrid vehicles and vehicles with a high content of polymeric materials on the automotive recycling infrastructure [12,13]. Optimization is the ideal approach in decision making for a given scenario, but this approach requires a precise mathematical determination of constraints and objectives.…”