Scavenging materials from power devices in scrapped electric cars
At the end of their life, a shredder is waiting for most of the cars circulating today on our roads. In conventional shredding processes however, more than 75% of the precious metals are lost; the gold, silver and palladium contained in the power electronic components are gone forever after being treated this way. If these vehicles instead are supplied to specific electronics recycling processes, 90% and more of these strategic metals can be recovered. The Öko-Institut has conducted a study about recycling of electric vehicles, along with partners Electrorecycling GmbH, Volkswagen and the TU Clausthal university.
If the printed circuit boards (PCBs) with the electronic components are additionally are treated chemically, also tantalum and a higher percentage of tin contained in the PCBs can be recovered, the experts say. This treatment however is associated with a high treatment effort; on the overall balance sheet this effort is not justified under ecological and energetic aspects. The costs of the treatment cannot be covered by the proceeds of the recovered materials, the study finds.
Power electronic components which in electric vehicles serve for energy management transform the energy from the battery and feeds it forward to the motors. These components have a high content of metal and thus represent a high value: Of the total weight, about 60% account to aluminum, 12% to copper in wiring and on the PCBs, as well as small amounts of gold, silver and palladium. Extrapolated to a ton of power electronic devices, the scientists estimated that through systematic electric recycling, seven grams of gold, 23 grams of silver, 1 gram of palladium and 500 grams of tin more can be recovered than through the standard shredding process. The reason is that in the relatively rough and coarse process of a shredder, these metals are lost as dust whereas in specific electronics recycling process, the dust content can be drastically reduced. One ton of power electronics corresponds to about 100 electric vehicles, the study reckons.
For the future, the experts from Öko-Institut expect that at annual sales of one million electric vehicles, the following amounts of metals can be recovered: 7 tons of tin, 85 kilograms of gold, 300 kilograms of silver, 17 tons of palladium and 70 tons of copper. For comparison: Today, in the entire electrical and electronic industry in Germany, about 12 tons of gold are processed every year. “These figures clarify that against the background of the expected electromobility breakthrough, optimized recycling processes can achieve significant savings of relevant resources. And that even under economical aspects, a more targeted recycling of power electronics is advantageous, despite higher cost”, summarizes Winfried Bulach, scientist at the Öko-Institut.
More information: w.bulach@oeko.de
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