THE IMPORTANCE OF RECYCLING IN THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ELECTRIC CARS

Abstract

Introduction:The electric car arose as an alternative to reducing the emission of pollutants and the dependence of fossil fuels on internal combustion vehicles. However, the comparisons are generally made in a single phase of the vehicle's life cycle: the useful life, making it necessary to develop deeper studies in all phases of the life cycle, from the extraction of minerals until the final recycling process of the vehicle, showing and quantifying all the environmental impacts. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the energy impact of copper used in the production of the electric car in two scenarios: one using copper from the recycling of vehicles and the other using the conventional mining processes practiced today. Methodology:For the development of the work, we investigated the trend of electric car production in the world, the consumption of copper in electric cars, declared reserves of copper in the world, process of vehicle recycling and copper, in addition to the analysis of the cycle of copper life.Results: The results observed in this study show that the recycling of copper in electric vehicles can achieve an average economy of 3.5 million MWh / year, equivalent to the productive capacity of electric power of a large thermoelectric power plant in Brazil. This means that recycling copper may save the construction of one thermoelectric plant per year in Brazil.Conclusion: It was observed in the study that with the increasing scarcity of natural resources, this article awakens and fosters the need to deepen the research related to the environmental impacts of electric vehicles.