Automobile shredder residue (ASR) or auto-fluff is a waste product from the extraction of metals from automobiles. The material is composed of plastics, vinyl, cellulose, wood, metals, leather, and other materials. ASR is currently disposed in public landfills. However because of the organic material content of this residue, it can potentially be converted into fuels using pyrolysis technology. ASR and red mud samples were characterized using several methods and then pyrolyzed using sand and red mud. Pyrolysis oils obtained using sand as the pyrolysis medium were more viscous than those using red mud and they also contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) at high levels. The yield of ASR pyrolysis liquids ranged from 20 to 32 wt%. Pyrolysis with red mud produced much lower viscosity oils which also had very low PCB content. Whereas there were several types of PCBs in the sand pyrolysis oils, there was only one PCB congener (trichlorobiphenyl) in the red mud ASR pyrolysis oils. Modification of the red mud with CaO reduced the PCB content of the ASR red mud pyrolysis oils to 5 ppm compared to over 50 ppm in the sand ASR pyrolysis oils. The gas yield ranged from 28 to 36 wt%. The red ASR pyrolysis gas was H<sub>2</sub>-rich while the sand pyrolysis oil was CO<sub>2</sub>-rich. The char-yield was very high and ranged from 38 to 42 wt% and had ash content over 70%. The red mud ASR pyrolysis oil in its current state can be potentially used as heating fuel but needs upgrading to qualify as transportation fuel.

Red mud catalytic pyrolysis of auto shredder residue

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.