Recycling old cars into new raw materials
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New tech recovers metals, plastics, and other materials from used vehicles
Spotted: At the moment, car recycling only recovers about 80 per cent of a vehicle’s materials, leaving 20 per cent behind as waste. This waste is often burnt or sent to landfill, generating pollution and carbon emissions. Grensol Group has developed a solution for this.
Using a proprietary process, the company efficiently recovers materials from car recycling so they can be used as a source of raw materials, preventing costly incineration or landfilling. The first step is to use physical techniques to separate metals from hydrocarbons based on density and magnetic properties. The recovered metals can then be sold for further recycling and new metal production, while recovered minerals like glass can be used to make new cement.
The second part of the process is photolysis, which mimics the effects of sunlight. This breaks down hydrocarbons into their fundamental constituents: hydrogen and carbon molecules. These can then be used to produce new raw materials, such as polymers. The company hopes to develop modular micro recycling sites that can be dropped into existing industrial sites, such as scrap yards, to ensure maximum efficiency.
Grensol claims that its solution can potentially avoid the emission of 6.4 tonnes of CO2 for each tonne of waste treated instead of incinerated. This could result in around 130 million tonnes of CO2 emissions being avoided per year, as well as enabling more than 80 million tonnes of mixed plastic waste to be kept out of landfills or incinerators.
The company recently received a CHF150,000 (around €161,000) investment from Venture Kick to scale its technology, accelerate the development of its solution, and broaden its reach to other waste streams. Grensol also recently announced a new partnership with XCharge North America to facilitate recycling solutions for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE).
Written By: Lisa Magloff