Material Demand Reduction and Closed-Loop Recycling Automotive Aluminium
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MRS Advances © 2018 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2018.280
Material Demand Reduction and Closed-Loop Recycling Automotive Aluminium Philippa Horton1, Julian Allwood1, Paul Cassell2, Christopher Edwards2, Adrian Tautscher2 1
University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, UK, CB2 1PZ
2
Jaguar Land Rover, Abbey Road, Whitley, Coventry, UK, CV3 4LF
ABSTRACT
Environmentally aware automotive manufacturers recycle aluminum production scrap in closed-loop systems to generate environmental and financial savings. Further savings could be gained if material demand is reduced, through improving the material utilization of the production process. Since a more efficient production process generates less scrap, the opportunity for closed loop recycling reduces when material demand reduces. This paper investigates the interaction between material demand reduction and closed loop recycling for an aluminum intensive case-study vehicle. It identifies the greatest environmental and financial savings when both strategies are implemented together. It is shown that a ‘recycled content’ target does not capture these saving opportunities. It is recommended that automotive manufacturers set targets for both material utilization and scrap recovery, to simultaneously promote closed-loop recycling and material demand reduction.
Introduction Manufacturing automotive components from sheet aluminum generates production scrap. As part of a wider effort to reduce the embodied CO2e of vehicles, the automotive industry can manage this post-industrial (PI) scrap with sustainability strategies such as ‘closed-loop recycling’ and ‘material demand reduction’. Closed-loop PI scrap recycling is an output focused strategy, in which recovered production scrap is converted back into metal coil which increases the recycled content of the vehicle, as shown in Figure 1. In contrast, material demand reduction is input focused.
Figure 1 - Diagram showing the flow of material in the production of automotive components. Closed-loop recycling maximizes the value of material outputs, whereas material demand reduction minimizes material inputs.
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This strategy reduces metal coil demand through improving material utilization, without differentiating between primary and secondary material sources, also shown in Figure 1. Although the waste hierarchy favors scrap prevention strategies to recycling strategies, implementation of closed-loop PI scrap recycling has been more widespread than material demand reduction [1]. For example, in 2014 the Jaguar Land Rover-led research project ‘REALCAR’ established 11 closed-loop press shops with aluminum supplier Novelis enabling the Jaguar XE to use a closed-loop recycled aluminum alloy [2]. In contrast, successful implementation of material demand reduction has not yet
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