LCE2016 Rev 1
LCE2016 Rev 1
LCE2016 Rev 1
net/publication/304660050
CITATIONS READS
41 2,252
3 authors, including:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Daniele Landi on 01 July 2016.
ScienceDirect
Procedia CIRP 00 (2016) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Abstract
End-of-Life Tires (ELT) are one of the main source of waste in End of Life Vehicles (ELVs). Textile fibers represent about 10% in weight of
the ELT and every year, in Europe, about 320,000 tons of dirty fibrous material must be disposed as special waste. Studies show that the
fibrous material can be used in second life applications, reducing the environmental impacts of tires disposal, but none of these researches
quantitatively evaluate the achievable benefits. This study presents a comparative evaluation of the environmental impacts of the tires
considering different scenarios for the end of life of the textile fibers material.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the scientific committee of the 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle
Engineering.
furnaces for the production of cement, 25% was used as fuel mortars [8, 9]. The fibers, mainly consisting of a blend of
for electricity production while the remaining 15% is destined polyester, rayon and nylon fibers, have yielded positive
for disposal in landfills [3]. results by improving the mechanical properties of the mortar,
Textile fibers represent about 10% by weight of the end-of- but the solution did not achieve market success due to
life tires (ELT) and every year, in Europe, about 320,000 tons economic reasons. Czvikovszky [10] investigated the use of
of dirty fibrous material must be disposed as special waste. waste textile fibers as reinforcing material for polypropylene
This results in negative impacts on the environment, in terms (PP) used in the production of car bumpers. Even in this case
of GHG emissions and pollution, economic losses and public the fibers have given positive results giving the modified PP a
costs. greater resistance to bending, increasing the modulus of
This study presents a comparative evaluation of the elasticity and acceptable impact strength compared to
environmental impacts of the tires considering different conventional PP. Those works are the basis of further R&D
scenarios for the end of life of the textile fiber material. In activities that have been carried out by Steca and his
particular it has been demonstrated that it’s possible use the coworkers in the past few years. The evolution of processing
fibrous material and the related changes in the disposing technologies, know-how and innovative ideas allowed to
process of tires. overcome all the major drawbacks and to pave the way for
ELT fibers recycling.
2. Context of research Fiber modified compounds can create a huge added-value
for plastic producers. The mixing of ELT fibers may require
In Italy the law defines the legal framework and assigns the only partial modifications to existing extruders and so minor
responsibility to the producers (tire manufacturers and investments that will be soon recovered by higher
importers) to organize the management chain of ELT. The profitability; in fact, the value of items can be higher because
crucial steps are collection, sorting, transformation and of their greater mechanical strength and durability. This
recovery in authorized treatment companies. The treatment makes the modified compound of considerable technical-
and the recovery process of ELT is primarily aimed at economical interest for manufacturing of a wide range of
recovering of triturated rubber in various sizes and types, plastic products, such as: carters, automotive components,
which represents the main portion of the ELT material. containers, pallets and so on.
During the treatment of tires, other two sub-products are The value of roads and infrastructures realized with the
generated in significant quantities, namely steel and textile new modified asphalts will be much higher because of longer
fibers. lifetime (we can estimate a life time of the pavement of about
In recent years, progresses in the recovery of ELT have 6-7 years compared to 5-6 current). Besides, the better
been done; currently the main markets for recycling are performance makes the new conglomerates applicable to very
energy recovery (as fuel in the cement kiln) and the recovery different climatic conditions and therefore ensures a wider
of as secondary raw material. One of the sectors in which market and replication across the EU. The new asphalt will be
recycled rubber is mostly exploited is civil engineering [6]: extremely appealing for construction companies for their
modified asphalt mixtures; additives for concrete; lightweight mechanical properties and will tremendously reduce the
fillers in infrastructure; safety barriers, bumpers, artificial public procurement costs of roads and infrastructures
reefs, etc. Currently steel fibers from waste tires are sent to rehabilitation and maintenance.
electric arc furnaces where it is used as secondary raw
material by melting or to replace anthracite and coke as 3. Used tires characteristics and valorization
reducing elements of metal oxides. However, growing the
interest towards sustainable building in smart cities, some The article shows how reducing the landfill material is
studies have shown affordable use of steel fibers from waste possible to reduce the impacts of the end of life tire (ELT). It
tires as reinforcement in concrete [7]. is therefore necessary to define how to use the waste material
As regards the recovery of textile fibers, the main problem in the second raw material, demonstrating the sustainable
for recycling is the contamination of rubber that does not reuse of recycled fibers in two promising applications:
allow to obtain a pure product, economically and qualitatively reinforced plastic compounds and bituminous mix for new
usable. This cleaning practice is not usually adopted because asphalts. In both cases the use of recycled ELT fibres will
there is not yet a market that justifies the effort and resources reduce the pressure on primary raw materials and enhance the
required for that. Moreover, there is a lack of available use of alternative compounds. This will reduce the overall
information on the characteristics of the textile fiber that GHG emissions, pollutants and environmental pressure due to
composes the ELT that does not allow to identify suitable land occupation and extraction of non-renewable raw
sectors for reuse. The main consequence is that both ELT materials. Enhancing ELT materials recycling and promoting
treatment companies and end-users are discouraged to invest economically affordable models will also help to stimulate the
in fibers recycling; thus, the dirty fiber is landfilled or goes ongoing ELT recovery market, will prevent further illegal
for thermal utilization (waste incineration plants or cement dumping and will encourage the reclamation of existing
production furnaces). Even in the scientific literature, it is stocks. Through the use of Life Cycle Assessment,
hard to find information about the possible reuse of ELT methodology it is possible assess the impacts of a product (in
fibers. In 2000-2001, Bignozzi and co-workers published this case of ELT) during the entire the life cycle, from cradle
some research papers on the use of ELT fibers for modified to grave[11]. Results of recently conducted LCA studies
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2014) 000–000 3
demonstrate that under present conditions, the substitution of a. when it is neither reusable nor reconstructable;
traditional materials by ELT derived materials (rubber and b. when it is abandoned or is sent for recovery or disposal;
steel) proved to be environmentally positive in most of the ELTs are a special kind of waste. The main producers of
scenarios considered. It is expected that, through the LCA ELTs are mechanical workshops where clients buy new tires
analysis, will be possible to demonstrate that the second use and leave the old ones. When it is decided that the used tire is
of the fibers coming from the disposal of ELT will reduce the neither reusable nor reconstructable, it is discarded and the
negative impact on the environment and human health. recovery process is started through industry consortiums.
Other manufacturers of ELTs are vehicle breakers who take
the vehicle for demolition, together with its tires. Here the
3.1. Properties of tire waste and reuse quality of the used tires is assessed, which may in turn be
considered suitable for recovery, as in the previous case, as a
Tires have a mixed composition of carbon black, elastomer special waste to be crafted or for commercial activities.
compounds, steel cord, fibers, in addition to several other In practice, in compliance with the regulations, the used
organic and inorganic components. Table 1 shows a view of tire should be managed as special waste. However, in recent
this composition [12]. years, and until the collection and recycling of ELTs became
more common, many tires were accumulated in various forms
Table 1. Average composition of a tyre. and in particular in and around urban areas. The reasons are
varied and currently it is estimated that in EU about two
Ingredient Passenger Lorry Off The
Car Road
million tons of ELTs yearly are stored more or less
legitimately or even abandoned [12]. Those that have been
Rubber/Elastomers 47% 45% 47%
abandoned on public land fall between the need for
Carbon Black 21.5% 22% 22% ‘‘municipal waste’’. Thus it is still widely regarded that ELTs
Metal 16.5% 23% 12% belong to both categories (special and municipal waste).
Textile 5.5% 3% 10%
Ave SD Ave SD Ave SD environmental burdens during the lifetime of the product or
Neat 28.72 1.2 712 111 1465 54 process are collected and quantified, followed by an
assessment of impacts that are presented in order to allow its
20% 23.92 1.91 12.22 2.1 1305 64
comparison or further analysis. The Life Cycle Inventory
(LCI) includes different sub-steps such as raw materials
In the field of bituminous conglomerates, the use of extraction, transportation, production, consumption and waste
recycled textile fibers as an additive showed a significant disposal.
increase of the values of tensile modulus and of fatigue The impact assessment phase, defined as a technical
strength (6-7 times higher than the standard conglomerates) process, quantitative and/or qualitative, to characterize and
and therefore of the useful lifetime of the pavement. evaluate the effects of the flows identified in the previous
phase, consists of the systematic evaluation of impacts,
namely the determination of the potential contribution of the
product for the categories of environmental impact, such as
global warming, acidification, among others. The life cycle of
a pavement is divided into five phases: (1) raw materials and
production, (2) construction, (3) use, (4) maintenance, (5) end
of life.
cylinder equipped with blades and a rotating internal cylinder which will be destined to the raw material production inside
also with blades, that fit the ones on the external cylinder, thus the production cycle (Figure 3). In this case through the new
crunching the inlet material. Electrical power is required to process it is possible to clean 6000 kg/day of landfill material,
drive the equipment. A suction system equipped with fabric recovering 3000 kg/day of rubber powder, and producing
filters is also present, to remove the dust, produced during the 3000 kg/day of textile fibers clean. In addition, once treated
grinding phases. In order to move the material from one step the textile fiber is compacted automatically in the cleaning
to the other conveyer belts are present, and magnetic belts are circuit and made excellently suitable for use as a second raw
used for iron scrap separation. The last step is the material (compound plastic and / or asphalt), thus excluding
pulverization and separation of the tire material to a size the landfill. Using the centrifugal force principle, the new
lower than 1 mm, and takes place in a machinery based on a machine is able to ensure a good cleaning of the canvas
fixed and a rotating disk, equipped with blades and between without having to use additional chemicals that should be
which a pneumatic transport system is used, equipped with a worsen the environmental emission. The Table 4 - Input –
fan and a cyclone. Figure 2 shows the current process of Output ELT to-be processshows the daily input and output for
STECA disposing. the TO-BE process.
the SimaPro 8 LCA tool and Ecoinvent 3.0 as database. The the fibrous material. The analysis considers various end of life
results are shown in the following Figure 4. scenarios; landfill, incineration and reuse, showing the
different impacts. It has also demonstrated the technical
feasibility of reusing the textile fiber as secondary raw
material in asphalt and plastic compounds. However, such
applications provide a degree of cleaning of the fiber higher
than that destined for landfill or incineration. It was therefore
analyzed the new process of disposal of the tires considering
the level of cleanliness required of the fiber (TO-BE process).
The analyzes show a global reduction of impacts in the case
of re-use of the fibrous material. Subsequent analysis will
consider the cost benefit analysis, and the evaluation to insert
the canvas resulting from the disposal of ELT on the market.
Acknowledgements
Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.
Alternative Proxies: