INNOVATION | AUTOMOTIVE


Above: BMW Group has set itself the target of increasing the proportion of secondary materials in its brands’ new models from around 30% at present to 50%


Martin Derks, Development Complete Vehicle, Leader Plastics at the BMW Group and project leader of FSCM. Patrick Glöckner, Head of the Global Circular


Plastics Program at Evonik, says: “Our mechanical recycling experts work closely with recyclers to prepare methods for cleaning up plastic parts, such as separating paint at the end of useful life. We also work with compounders to develop solutions for using the highest possible proportion of recycled plastics in new automotive parts.” The integrated collaboration of the FSCM


project enables the consortium to quickly identify challenges and jointly develop solutions, according to Evonik. The high complexity of automotive manufacturing means the knowledge gained in the project can also be applied to other industrial products in the future, such as commercial vehicles, electrical and household appliances, it says. Thomas Marquardt, Managing Director Sales,


Right: Trinseo’s Pulse GX50 Eco PC/ABS, which has 30% recycled content, is being used by a European premium carmaker for interior applications


Marketing & Development at Wipag, says: “The project is a great opportunity as it brings together numerous market players with different compe- tences in materials development.” BMW Group has set itself the target of increas- ing the proportion of secondary materials in its brands’ new models from around 30% at present to 50%. In April, the carmaker announced it is leading another German state-supported collaborative project focused on improving car recycling called Car2Car. The focus of this project is to optimise the dismantling of cars and adopt intelligent sorting methods to boost the recovery rate for metals, glass and plastics. BMW says: “The Car2Car consortium is working out the optimum balance between the dismantling process and post-shredder technologies from a qualitative, economic and ecological perspective – in order to retain as much of the value initially invested in the manufacturing of a car as possible. Today’s recycling processes involve a high degree of manual effort and result in a loss of material


26 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2023


purity, meaning they are only economically viable for a very small number of vehicle components. Car2Car aims to present sound recommendations for an innovative framework that will enable an efficient circular economy to deliver greater added value in future than is possible by following conventional, linear process chains.” The consortium will explore the use of digital technology and artificial intelligence to increasingly automate and speed up recycling processes that have been performed manually up to now. These technologies could be used in the dismantling process, which could be partly or even highly automated with the help of robotics technology, and in the integration of optical and AI-assisted detection and sorting systems for materials. Development of a sustainable car headlamp is the


target of the Nalyses project, involving several partners including BMW, which again has received German federal funding. Hella, part of Tier 1 group Forvia, is leading this project in which the example of a headlamp will be used to research how products and raw materials can be reused as long as possible in a circular economy. Miele is another partner, which will evaluate the transferability of the project results to the production of household appliances. “The aim of our research project is to design and


produce our future products more resource-friend- ly and with lower emissions. We are therefore looking at options to reduce the CO2 footprint of a headlamp over its entire life cycle,” says Michael Kleinkes, who is responsible for development in the lighting Business Group at Hella. The starting point of the Nalyses project is the selection of sustainable, low-emission materials including recycled and bio-based plastics. Kleinkes says product design also plays a decisive role as the headlamp should be both repairable and recyclable in order to increase its lifetime, conserve


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


IMAGE: BMW


IMAGE: TRINSEO


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