Recovery of Corrosion-Resisting Zinc from Junked Automobiles

Zinc galvanized coatings, zinc-rich primer coatings, and zinc die-cast are used in automobiles to combat corrosion. Most of the zinc in an automobile is present as die-cast that is rejected with other nonmagnetic components when the iron is magnetically separated from the shredded automobile, or melts away from the iron if the automobile is incinerated before being compacted into bundles. Such zinc is readily recovered and recycled. If bundled automobiles are melted in iron foundries without prior die-cast removal by melting or hand-stripping, the flue dusts produced contain as much as 35% zinc. A double distillation procedure has been developed to produce a prime western zinc product from such enriched dusts.