Mass Balance and Composition Analysis of Shredder Residue

The process of shredding end-of-life vehicles to recover metals results in a byproduct commonly referred to as shredder residue. The four and a half million metric tons of shredder residue produced annually in the United States is presently land filled. To meet the challenges of automotive materials recycling, the U.S. Department of Energy is supporting research at Argonne National Laboratory in cooperation with the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and the American Plastics Council. This paper presents the results of a study that was conducted by Argonne to determine variations in the composition of shredder residue from different shredders. Over 90 metric tons of shredder residues were processed through the Argonne pilot plant. The contents of the various separated streams were quantitatively analyzed to determine their composition and to identify materials that should be targeted for recovery. The analysis established a reliable mass balance for the different materials in shredder residue.