From: "Michael Huffman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Ed's Storms hope: Recycling
> Mike Carrell wrote: > > > Wesley, you are also correct and after I wrote my piece I remembered that at > > least one auto manufacturer is producing cars that can easily be [partially] > > disassembled for segregating into recycling programs. > > A steel engineer whose major client was an automobile manufacturer > approached me about 10 years ago, asking if I knew of a way to remove > gallium or arsenic from steel. His company was melting down crushed > cars to recycle the steel, and said that those two materials in > particular were becoming a problem. Apparently, the more modern cars > had enough microchips in them that steel recyclers needed a solution to > the problem to keep the quality of the recycled steel high enough for > re-use in the automobile industry. > > I would suspect that a combination of using more modern chips, plus > installing as many as possible together in a place that would facilitate > their easy removal would solve that problem. This would require > industrywide cooperation and standardization (yikes!), but if they > haven't done it already, I would think that they would be intelligent > enough to see the economical advantages. > > Knuke -------------------------------- Most interesting and another illustration of my point that recycling is not simple at all when you take it seriously. I am surprised that the amount of gallium or arsenic from microchips could possibly alter the metallurgical qualities of steel enough to disqualify it for re-use. Ths principal constiuent of a microship is hyper-pure silicon to which trace amounts of dopants which may include arsenic and gallium are added to produce the transistor effects. These amounts are so small that ordinary chemical analysis of a microchip will report it as pure silicon. An automotive engine compartment is an extremely hars environment for electronics -- hot and electrically noisy -- and it was some time before components were developed that could operate in that environment. Gallium and aresnic might be in other electronic components, or other components of a car. Mike Carrell > > > >
