Remanufacturing waste steel sheet from end-of-life vehicles into electrical installation wall junction boxes: Quantitative sustainability assessment

Abstract

The growing waste stream from the automotive industry is a mounting environmental burden, but also a potential source of valuable materials. This study evaluates a potential small business based on remanufacturing the metal sheets from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) by applying inexpensive commercially available technology (such as cutting and welding) to produce wall junction boxes for electrical installations in construction applications. To evaluate this process as a sustainable alternative to recycling or landfilling metal sheets, the technical, economic, and environmental feasibilities of several case studies were analyzed. Single junction boxes can be purchased, manufactured using new steel, or remanufactured using waste sheet steel from ELVs. These boxes are assembled into multi-box modules with 2–5 boxes using backing plates made from new or ELV-derived steel. Twelve production alternatives based on the three main case studies were evaluated, giving profits of 49.4–90.0, 222.5–263.2, and 190.3–231.0 thousand USD/day in the case of purchased boxes/(re)manufactured backing plates, remanufactured boxes/(re)manufactured backing plates, and manufactured boxes/(re)manufactured backing plates, respectively. In a practical case study, remanufacturing of waste sheet steel to produce wall junction boxes for electrical installations was applied on an industrial scale using machinery currently available on the market to prove the technical feasibility of the proposed remanufacturing process. The calculated economic, environmental, and social feasibility values are shown to be sufficiently high for industrial application, with an overall remanufacturing sustainability index of 0.85 (which exceeds literature thresholds). The most appropriate technological alternatives were identified to guide the development of this business.