Chinook and EMR develop technology for 100% car recycling

A new technology is introduced in the world’s largest industrial waste gasification plant at Oldbury, West Midlands which is due to commission this month where nearly 100 percent of old vehicles can be recycled or turned into energy.

This technology is part of the newly emerging “cleantech” sector that is a section of green economy which deals with a variety of areas including renewable energy, smart grids and car sharing. Cleantech Group which is an US consultancy released a report this month where UK ranked second after US regarding its annual ranking of start-ups in the sector.

Britain sends more than a million vehicles to scrap every year which makes this joint venture between Chinook Sciences and European Metals Recycling worth £100m crucial to improve the recycling rates. The technology adopted by Chinook uses a waste gratification process that works like an industrial-scale cooker where all the organic material like wood, carpets, foam, etc. are turned into gas leaving the clean metal behind to be recycled.

The gas produced is similar to natural gas which means it could also be used for electricity generating purposes.

Rising landfill taxes and strict EU recycling targets are key factors driving development in this sector. Although Britain surpassed the target of 85 percent attaining 88 percent recycling last year, from next year the target is likely to ne 95 percent.

Graeme Carur, the EMR director of business development says, “The reality is that the only way those targets are going to be met is to get into this sort of technology. You can’t meet those targets by dismantling spare parts off a car.”

According to calculations, the recycling and recovering rates at the plant is likely to be 99 percent with the remaining 1 percent being the ash that is left behind from the process.