BMW Group, based in Munich, Germany, says it is leading a new state-funded project called Car2Car. BMW says the effort is designed to explore the circular economy in car manufacturing.
The company says it is joining forces with representatives of the recycling industry, commodity processors and the scientific community “to work on ways to improve the quality of secondary raw materials obtained from end-of-life vehicle recycling useful (ELV)”.
The Car2Car project has received 6.4 million euros ($7.1 million) in support from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action of this agency, according to the funding guidelines of “New vehicles and system technologies ” of this agency, according to BMW.
The Car2Car project will focus on a variety of materials, including aluminum, steel, glass, copper and plastic. In the future, the automaker says, “innovative dismantling and automated sorting methods should allow far greater amounts of the resources recovered from ELVs to be used in new car production than has been the case so far.”
The Car2Car project also includes an end-to-end assessment of the ecological and economic impacts of closed-loop recycling of the materials being investigated, according to BMW.
“The BMW Group is rigorously focusing on technological innovations as a driver for greater sustainability in all areas of the value chain,” comments Uwe Köhler, Senior Vice President of the car manufacturer. “The accumulated knowledge of the different partners involved in this project could unlock new ways of obtaining valuable secondary raw materials. This would save natural resources and reduce carbon emissions when manufacturing our vehicles.”
Michael Kellner, Parliamentary Secretary of State for the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, comments: “A stronger circular economy that conserves and reuses resources is a key step towards climate neutrality and safeguards supply chains at the same time. Funding from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs will help make the automotive industry less dependent on raw material imports and ensure a long-term supply of raw materials for the economy, thereby boosting value creation industrial
The BMW Group says it has set itself the goal of increasing the proportion of secondary materials in new models of its brands from 30% currently to 50% eventually. The company says that the recyclability of the materials it uses is already taken into account during the design process of the new models.
“Rethinking how vehicle materials are recovered at the end of the product life cycle is also of key importance,” says BMW. The manufacturer says that raw materials obtained from recycling can only be used as part of a circular economy if they also meet “the high quality standards that the BMW Group expects from materials for premium cars”.
The BMW Group is supplying 500 ELVs for project research purposes. A variety of models from its own portfolio, ranging from Mini cars to Rolls-Royces with combustion engines, plug-in hybrid systems and all-electric drive units, will undergo recycling processes “to produce a representative spectrum” , says the automaker.
The project’s research includes assessing how “limiting the flow of materials in vehicles affects the quality and purity of secondary raw materials,” BMW says.
The Car2Car consortium also assures that it is “working on the optimal balance between the dismantling process and post-shredder technologies from a qualitative, economic and ecological perspective, in order to retain as much as possible of the value initially invested in the manufacture of a car “.
The consortium claims that the ELV dismantling process “can be partially or even highly automated with the help of robotic technology.” The BMW Group also says that the integration of systems for optical and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted detection and sorting of reusable materials in the post-shredder process leads to a significant improvement in the quality and purity of aluminum, steel, glass, copper and plastic. materials.
Further Car2Car research could look at the development of sensor technology using AI-based material detection and other spectroscopic methods (such as laser-induced plasma spectroscopy) capable of identifying different steel and aluminum alloys.
“We face up to our responsibilities and take a holistic approach while looking for concrete solutions regarding the efficient use of resources,” says Hilke Schaer, BMW Group Project Manager. “The interaction between actors from the worlds of industry and science forms the basis for creating practical innovations within the Car2Car project that will lead to a potential for scalability for the future.”
BMW Group says it is also leading another consortium project called Future Sustainable Car Materials (FSCM). In this effort, research institutes and companies are working together on “innovative process routes and material concepts for the sustainable use of secondary materials and to reduce the carbon footprint of raw materials such as steel and aluminum,” according to BMW.
The automaker adds: “The use of secondary aluminum is a good example of how the consistent use of recycled material can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
BMW Group also says it is the only car manufacturer to have its own recycling center. which has been in operation since 1994. Up to 10,000 vehicles a year are processed at the Recycling and Dismantling Center in Unterschleißheim, Germany, near Munich. Findings emerging from the center are made accessible “to all actors in the recycling industry,” according to BMW.
In addition to various universities and trade groups, other partners in the Car2Car consortium include: Scholz Recycling GmbH; Steinert UniSort GmbH; ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG; Salzgitter Mannesmann Research GmbH; Aurubis AG; Novelis Germany GmbH; Oetinger Aluminum GmbH; and Pilkington Automotive Deutschland GmbH.
