The automotive electrical and electronic systems (EES) comprise all car devices that are dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic field and the elements for the generation and transfer of such currents and fields. These include different types of components which are distributed over nearly all vehicle areas, e.g. wire harnesses, battery, electric motors, electronic control units, junction boxes, lights, heating and air condition units, sensors, actuators and other connected electric/electronic devices. The European research project 'SEES - Sustainable Electrical & Electronic System of the Automotive Sector' aimed at the development of guidelines, prototypes and processes striving for sustainable automotive EES. A consortium of 10 European partners from research and industry developed the SEES project during February 2004 to January 2007. Results from the SEES dismantling, shredded and recycling studies with a focus on EES components are presented in this paper. Within the project alternative end-of-life scenarios for automotive EES have been compared and mechanical and chemical recycling approaches have been developed to recover additional materials from EES where markets are available. It has been shown that design changes for improving disassembly have no significant impact and that disassembly of the studied parts prior to shredding is not profitable for material recycling expect for components with high precious metal content or components with suficient value on a reuse market. From a life cycle point of view it cannot be recommended to focus design improvements only on the end-of-life phase because use phase and production of EES components generally proved to be much more relevant from an environmental and economic point of view. These findings have been included in concepts for an optimised EES which were developed in the project, including e.g. the use of natural fibre reinforced plastics and an energy management system. In particular improved EES designs and concepts and - to a significant lesser extent - optimised end-of-life processes help to realise a more sustainable automotive EES scenario for the future. Further results of the project and public reports are available on the project's website (www-sees-project.net).


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    Title :

    Recycling of automotive electrical & electronic systems: The SEES project


    Additional title:

    Recycling von elektrischen und elektronischen Kraftfahrzeugsystemen: Das SEES-Projekt




    Publication date :

    2007


    Size :

    11 Seiten, 1 Tabelle, 9 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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