Options available to auto recyclers who need to drain and properly handle a variety of fluids have increased noticeably.
The relationship between auto salvage operators and the automotive fluids drained from the vehicles they acquire has changed significantly in the past two decades.
Much of what has been happening in the past few years can be matched with similar examples of what happens when a material or substance shifts from being a waste to a secondary commodity.
For many veterans of the auto salvage and dismantling industry, it can be difficult to think of the transmission fluid or gasoline drained as anything but waste.
However, thanks to oil prices with a rising moving average and a growing infrastructure of entrepreneurs collecting fluids for recycling, many salvage companies are treating their recovered fluids with new-found respect.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
For health and safety reasons, auto dismantlers have long been draining and separating the fluids that come along for the ride when they purchase an end-of-life vehicle.
What they do with those fluids became subject to greater scrutiny in 1980, when the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was enacted as law. Part of this legislation (often referred to as Superfund) addressed the release into the air, water or ground of even small amounts of substances common to salvage operations.
Motor oil, other automotive system fluids, lead-acid batteries and cleaning fluids used by dismantlers were among the things with the potential to be labeled as hazardous waste if not properly handled.
For many of the fluids, recycling markets have developed in synch with the willingness of dismantlers to store spent fluids in segregated tanks and drums and the rising cost of oil per barrel.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
Petroleum-based fluids have enjoyed the most recycling attention, especially as the per-barrel cost of crude oil has escalated in the face of surging global demand for oil.
A multi-layered used oil market has developed in many regions. In California, the oil recycling market is described by the Automotive Recycling Association (ARA) ECAR website this way (www.ecarcenter.org):
Used Oil Transporters: Companies that pick up used oil from all sources and deliver it to re-refiners, processors or burners.
Used Oil Re-refiners and Processors: Facilities that blend or remove impurities from used oil so that the oil can be burned for energy recovery or re-used. Included in this category are re-refiners who process used oil so that it can be re-used in a new product such as a lubricant and recycled repeatedly.
Used Oil Burners: Used oil is burned in boilers, industrial furnaces or hazardous waste incinerators for energy recovery.
Used Oil Marketers: Handlers who either a.) direct shipments of used oil to be burned as fuel in regulated devices or b.) claim that certain EPA specifications are met for used oil to be burned for energy recovery in devices that are not regulated.
The market for used oil has changed quickly enough that many companies in the market have had difficulty adjusting to the change, according to Brant Long, general manager of Lamb Fuels, Chula Vista, Calif.
Lamb Fuels collects and recycles not motor oil but rather the gasoline or diesel fluid drained from end-of-life vehicles. It is a segment of the fluid recycling market that has developed even more recently and rapidly than the engine oil market.
“We’ve got clients who have gone from paying to dispose of this as an expense to either being in a net zero situation or even to developing a significant revenue stream,” says Long. “Some of our potential customers just don’t believe it because of the way things had been done for so long. It’s a struggle to get some of them to change.”
FUELING A NEW MARKET
Lamb Fuels works with a customer base that includes large used auto parts chains with large vehicle inventories, smaller dismantlers with one location and companies and facilities outside of the auto salvage sector, such as airports, railroads and vehicle fleet terminals.
The company’s customers store their drained gasoline in tanks that can hold as much as 500 or even 4,000 gallons of fuel.
Lamb Fuels’ 8,000-gallon tanker trucks arrive and first test and sample the drained fuel. Fuel that passes this test is pumped into the tankers and arrives at a Lamb Fuels facility for what Long calls a “long-term filtration process.”
This recovered and filtered gasoline or diesel fuel can then be blended with compatible new fuel and delivered to end users such as fleet terminals or in the retail sector. “At this point, it passes all tests for retail sale,” says Long.
Among the surprises that have been revealed in this emerging market is the amount of gasoline that can be recovered within the auto salvage sector. “We find an average of 4 gallons of gasoline per [salvaged] vehicle,” Long says of the studies Lamb Fuels has conducted.
Thus, larger salvage facilities that maintain an influx of 50 to 100 cars purchased per day can quickly fill up even a large tank, notes Long. In the case of one customer, Lamb Fuels has installed sensors in this company’s gasoline storage tanks so Lamb’s dispatch center will know when the time is right to send one of its 8,000-gallon tanker trucks to that location.
The model has been a winning one for Lamb Fuels, which has grown steadily in the past six years, adding storage and filtration facilities in several locations well beyond Southern California.
Long says the company will locate a facility in regions where its larger customers are doing business, helping to ensure a supply of product and also earning goodwill with its customers.
SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
The combination of regulations and market opportunities available has provided an opportunity for equipment suppliers to step in with systems to efficiently drain, collect and store fluids.
Iron Ax, Wadley, Ga., has been offering its EnviroRack system for several years and has sold about 150 of the units to customers, according to company president Charlie Hall.
“We developed it because we saw the need in the industry to safely drain these fluids out of automobiles,” says Hall.
With vehicles lifted onto the EnviroRack, the force of gravity drains fluids quickly into a waiting funnel, says Hall (with a little help from a small vacuum in the case of brake fluid).
Hall estimates that one person can drain the fluids from a vehicle in from one to three minutes using the EnviroRack, “depending on how much gas or other fluid is in [the vehicle].”
Iron Ax makes the EnviroRack to be portable enough to be towed on a flatbed or even a rolloff truck, so portable car crushing firms can bring the system with them.
Other EnviroRacks stay in place at dismantling yards, such as the very first one sold to a customer in Michigan. Hall recalls that the Michigan customer received a visit from a state inspector not long after installing the system. “That inspector walked around the rack and said it was the nicest thing he’d ever seen and that he was proud the recycler was trying to do the right thing by the environment,” says Hall.
Other companies offering automotive fluid drainage and storage systems include Austria’s SEDA Environmental; United Kingdom-based Vortex Depollution Systems, with an office in Aurora, Colo.; Drain Tech products, which are developed and marketed by Foss Auto Salvage, LaGrange, N.C.; and W.E.N. Industries, Merrimack, N.H., the makers of Gas Buggy fluid transfer units.
Prices paid for spent oils or drained gasoline are subject to the same volatility of every other secondary commodity that auto recyclers or scrap dealers might encounter.
Potentially, however, investments made in several links of the automotive fluids supply chain during this decade—collecting, storing and either combusting or re-refining the fluids will be sufficient to have led to an established market.
by Brian Taylor, editor-in-chief of Recycling Today Magazine.
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/fluid-situation-recycling-today-september-2010.aspx
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Retire Your Ride Drives Participation for Last 6 Months of Program
Canada's National Vehicle Recycling Program hosts event to encourage Ontarians to act now
Two massive pieces of art were constructed from retired vehicles and old-fashioned human, green power today in the middle of Metro Hall as Retire Your Ride used Car Free Day to highlight the benefits of sustainable transportation and to call attention to the program. The event was also a reminder that there are only six months left to participate in Retire Your Ride, as March 31, 2011 marks the last day that Ontarians can be rewarded for retiring their 1995 model year or older vehicles.
In addition to local artists creating art out of old cars, the event also showcased BMX stunt riders, strongmen pulling retired cars across the Square, event attendees decorating a retired vehicle and a charitable donation by the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association presented to Pollution Probe's Clean Air Commute, CultureLink and Toronto Cyclists Union's Integration & Sustainable Transportation Partnership and Green Communities Canada's Ontario Walkolution. On top of that, a disc jockey entertained the crowd with car themed music and attendees were treated to a free lunch.
"Retire Your Ride has seen tremendous success to date, responsibly recycling over 38,000 vehicles in Ontario alone," said Rebecca Spring, program manager at Summerhill Impact, Ontario delivery agent for Retire Your Ride. "With only six months left in the program, Ontarians with 1995 model year and older vehicles need to act now in order to take advantage of the program and be rewarded for responsibly retiring their vehicles."
Retire Your Ride, ending on March 31, 2011, aims to reduce smog-forming emissions, ensure vehicles are responsibly recycled and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. Since its launch in January 2009, Retire Your Ride has taken more than 94,000 vehicles off the road nationally, reducing smog-forming emissions by over 5,000 tonnes.
Ontarians who own a 1995 model year or older vehicle and choose to take part in Retire Your Ride can be rewarded with one of a number of rewards available to program participants, including:
Bicycles - A discount of $350 to $490 off of a high-end commuter bicycle as well as up to 15 per cent off parts and services;
Transit Passes - Free transit passes in select municipalities;
Car Share - Discounts off car share rates and memberships in select municipalities
Electric Transportation - A discount of $450 on the purchase of an ebike or a complete conversion kit;
Manufacturer supported rebates are also available from Chrysler, Hyundai, Ford and GM
Cash - $300 cash;
"The time is now for Ontarians to make the switch to more sustainable modes of transportation," continued Spring. "Until March 31, 2011, Canadians will be offered incentives for retiring their 1995 model year and older vehicles and can ensure their cars are responsibly recycled."
If not handled properly, scrapped vehicles can damage the environment. Through the Retire Your Ride program, vehicle materials are removed, re-used or responsibly disposed of. Retire Your Ride's participating auto recyclers follow a National Code of Practice and ensure that materials such as oil, gasoline, refrigerants, mercury switches, wheels and tires are removed from vehicles prior to scrappage in order to protect our air, water and land.
In June 2008, the Government of Canada committed up to $92 million over four years to the Retire Your Ride program to help Canadians recycle their older, higher polluting vehicles and make sustainable transportation choices, leading to reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Retire Your Ride is a national program designed to effectively and efficiently retire 1995 model year or older vehicles in an environmentally responsible manner, in an effort to improve air quality and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. The Retire Your Ride program is delivered nationally by Summerhill Impact, funded by the Government of Canada and supported by a network of experienced regional delivery agents across the country, as well as a national network of automotive recyclers.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2010/22/c3944.html
Two massive pieces of art were constructed from retired vehicles and old-fashioned human, green power today in the middle of Metro Hall as Retire Your Ride used Car Free Day to highlight the benefits of sustainable transportation and to call attention to the program. The event was also a reminder that there are only six months left to participate in Retire Your Ride, as March 31, 2011 marks the last day that Ontarians can be rewarded for retiring their 1995 model year or older vehicles.
In addition to local artists creating art out of old cars, the event also showcased BMX stunt riders, strongmen pulling retired cars across the Square, event attendees decorating a retired vehicle and a charitable donation by the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association presented to Pollution Probe's Clean Air Commute, CultureLink and Toronto Cyclists Union's Integration & Sustainable Transportation Partnership and Green Communities Canada's Ontario Walkolution. On top of that, a disc jockey entertained the crowd with car themed music and attendees were treated to a free lunch.
"Retire Your Ride has seen tremendous success to date, responsibly recycling over 38,000 vehicles in Ontario alone," said Rebecca Spring, program manager at Summerhill Impact, Ontario delivery agent for Retire Your Ride. "With only six months left in the program, Ontarians with 1995 model year and older vehicles need to act now in order to take advantage of the program and be rewarded for responsibly retiring their vehicles."
Retire Your Ride, ending on March 31, 2011, aims to reduce smog-forming emissions, ensure vehicles are responsibly recycled and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. Since its launch in January 2009, Retire Your Ride has taken more than 94,000 vehicles off the road nationally, reducing smog-forming emissions by over 5,000 tonnes.
Ontarians who own a 1995 model year or older vehicle and choose to take part in Retire Your Ride can be rewarded with one of a number of rewards available to program participants, including:
Bicycles - A discount of $350 to $490 off of a high-end commuter bicycle as well as up to 15 per cent off parts and services;
Transit Passes - Free transit passes in select municipalities;
Car Share - Discounts off car share rates and memberships in select municipalities
Electric Transportation - A discount of $450 on the purchase of an ebike or a complete conversion kit;
Manufacturer supported rebates are also available from Chrysler, Hyundai, Ford and GM
Cash - $300 cash;
"The time is now for Ontarians to make the switch to more sustainable modes of transportation," continued Spring. "Until March 31, 2011, Canadians will be offered incentives for retiring their 1995 model year and older vehicles and can ensure their cars are responsibly recycled."
If not handled properly, scrapped vehicles can damage the environment. Through the Retire Your Ride program, vehicle materials are removed, re-used or responsibly disposed of. Retire Your Ride's participating auto recyclers follow a National Code of Practice and ensure that materials such as oil, gasoline, refrigerants, mercury switches, wheels and tires are removed from vehicles prior to scrappage in order to protect our air, water and land.
In June 2008, the Government of Canada committed up to $92 million over four years to the Retire Your Ride program to help Canadians recycle their older, higher polluting vehicles and make sustainable transportation choices, leading to reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Retire Your Ride is a national program designed to effectively and efficiently retire 1995 model year or older vehicles in an environmentally responsible manner, in an effort to improve air quality and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. The Retire Your Ride program is delivered nationally by Summerhill Impact, funded by the Government of Canada and supported by a network of experienced regional delivery agents across the country, as well as a national network of automotive recyclers.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2010/22/c3944.html
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Increased recycling of auto parts focus of engineering researcher
Human beings have little understanding of what happens in their afterlife. The same might be said for their automobiles.~
“It’s the end-of-life which we least understand,” said Susan Sawyer-Beaulieu, a post-doctoral fellow in Edwin Tam’s civil and environmental engineering lab who devoted the past seven years of her life researching what happens to our cars after they’re sent to auto recyclers and scrap yards. “The general public really doesn’t understand what a sophisticated industry it really is.”
With funding from the AUTO21 network, Dr. Sawyer-Beaulieu recently completed her PhD and the focus of her thesis was to conduct a meticulously compiled automotive life-cycle inventory assessment of just what goes into an auto dismantler’s facility, what gets recycled and re-used and what goes through the shredder, and ultimately, to the landfill.
She worked with auto dismantlers in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario, some of whom process as many as 17,000 vehicles a year and discovered that as much as 12 percent of re-usable, re-manufacturable and recyclable vehicle parts and materials are recovered by dismantlers prior to shipping the leftover hulks to the shredder for metals recovery.
“After recovering recyclable shredded metals, the shredder residue that comes out at the end of the process still contains materials that could potentially be recycled if they can be recovered after the vehicle is dismantled,” she said.
http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/nvdailynews/nvdn.nsf/fulltoday/BEA56A07456F14A88525779E00267FD3
It’s her hope that more automotive jobs could be created if there is increased emphasis on trying to recover, re-use, re-manufacture and recycle the parts and materials from cars that go to scrap yards, which could have lasting environmental benefits for future generations. But before that can happen, auto dismantlers will need to be more aware of what could be recovered for recycling and convinced there’s a market for those parts and materials so that salvaging them makes good business sense.
“It’s a very well-structured industry,” she said of the dismantling business. “They’re very good at keeping track of what they have, but not so good measuring how much of the vehicle they actually recover. The more we understand about the dismantling phase, I think we’ll be better able to find ways to make the process more efficient.”
Sawyer-Beaulieu will continue her research with the help of a $70,000 grant from the MITACS' Elevate program, which provides Ontario PhD graduates the opportunity to gain research experience in areas of industrial and societal importance while working on a collaborative research project with Ontario companies.
"There is an opportunity to develop an industry in Windsor and Detroit, which have always been automotive manufacturing leaders in North America and maybe there could be opportunities to make them a leader in automotive recycling."
“It’s the end-of-life which we least understand,” said Susan Sawyer-Beaulieu, a post-doctoral fellow in Edwin Tam’s civil and environmental engineering lab who devoted the past seven years of her life researching what happens to our cars after they’re sent to auto recyclers and scrap yards. “The general public really doesn’t understand what a sophisticated industry it really is.”
With funding from the AUTO21 network, Dr. Sawyer-Beaulieu recently completed her PhD and the focus of her thesis was to conduct a meticulously compiled automotive life-cycle inventory assessment of just what goes into an auto dismantler’s facility, what gets recycled and re-used and what goes through the shredder, and ultimately, to the landfill.
She worked with auto dismantlers in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario, some of whom process as many as 17,000 vehicles a year and discovered that as much as 12 percent of re-usable, re-manufacturable and recyclable vehicle parts and materials are recovered by dismantlers prior to shipping the leftover hulks to the shredder for metals recovery.
“After recovering recyclable shredded metals, the shredder residue that comes out at the end of the process still contains materials that could potentially be recycled if they can be recovered after the vehicle is dismantled,” she said.
http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/nvdailynews/nvdn.nsf/fulltoday/BEA56A07456F14A88525779E00267FD3
It’s her hope that more automotive jobs could be created if there is increased emphasis on trying to recover, re-use, re-manufacture and recycle the parts and materials from cars that go to scrap yards, which could have lasting environmental benefits for future generations. But before that can happen, auto dismantlers will need to be more aware of what could be recovered for recycling and convinced there’s a market for those parts and materials so that salvaging them makes good business sense.
“It’s a very well-structured industry,” she said of the dismantling business. “They’re very good at keeping track of what they have, but not so good measuring how much of the vehicle they actually recover. The more we understand about the dismantling phase, I think we’ll be better able to find ways to make the process more efficient.”
Sawyer-Beaulieu will continue her research with the help of a $70,000 grant from the MITACS' Elevate program, which provides Ontario PhD graduates the opportunity to gain research experience in areas of industrial and societal importance while working on a collaborative research project with Ontario companies.
"There is an opportunity to develop an industry in Windsor and Detroit, which have always been automotive manufacturing leaders in North America and maybe there could be opportunities to make them a leader in automotive recycling."
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